Evangelion: Tribulations After
by PsyWeedle
Summary: A continuation fic. Did the End of Evangelion truly happen? Was it all just a dream? Will Shinji and Asuka ever fall in love? Will happiness ever be achieved? Find out in this fic.
1. Aftermath, part 1: Wake Up, Shinji

"Wake up, Shinji."  
  
Shinji slowly released his grip on Asuka.  
  
"Wake up, Shinji."  
  
Shinji collapsed onto the ground next to Asuka.  
  
"Wake up, Shinji."  
  
"I feel sick."  
  
"WAKE UP, SHINJI!"  
  
And Shinji opened his eyes. Standing over him was a boy with white hair, he was just a little taller than Shinji, and had obviously been shaking Shinji in an attempt to rouse him.  
  
"About time you woke up, you idiot."  
  
Shinji could only stare wide-eyed at the person standing over him. His mind raced to try to find comprehension of the last few hours. He had just been through the philosophical discussion of the millennium, and was revealed that he and Asuka were the only two humans left on earth, and they would have to restart the human race, so who was this guy?  
  
"Who am I? Name's not important."  
  
"You read my thoughts..."  
  
"No duh, moron. By the way, this is only a dream. This never happened."  
  
Shinji awoke in his bed. His forehead was covered in light sweat as he realized he was in the bed of his home. He had no idea how he got there, or what the dream he had just had meant. Had it all been a dream? Had the Third Impact just been a dream? Wanting answers, Shinji got up out his bed and put on a pair of sweat pants. He opened the door to his room and walked out to see Misato having her morning beer. She turned and saw Shinji standing there.  
  
"Hey, Shinji. You really need to set that alarm of yours! The first time I get a vacation day and in my sleeping, I never noticed you not going to school. Asuka's already left." She said, getting up.  
  
"Misato?! But you're-"  
  
Misato walked close to him and hugged him. In his ear, she whispered, "Meet me at the entranceway to NERV. Bring Rei if you can find her."  
  
"But-"  
  
"Do it." She commanded.  
  
Shinji sat in his classroom like he had done it a hundred times. He ignored the repetitive babblings of his teacher, and looked all around him. Ayanami was at her usual seat, looking out a window, her eyes still wide with surprise, but Shinji didn't know what she was surprised about. Asuka looked about as tense as Shinji, as she fiddled around with her pencil and chewed on it as well. Everyone else just listened on to the droning of their teacher.  
  
Shinji's mind was going a mile a minute, searching every possibility in his mind for how he had survived the Third Impact, or how everyone else had. Most of his own conversations in his mind had been about trying to accept life and to love himself, and to not hate himself. And yet, still, he could find no self-worth even after all that. The only thing that made his life worthwhile was piloting EVA, and they might not even exist here.  
  
At lunch, when everyone was outside, Asuka and Shinji stood in front of Rei, but not looking at her. Rei just sat on the bench, not even bothering to read her book. Asuka and Shinji stared at each other, each thinking the same thing. Finally, they lept into one another's arms and hugged.  
  
"I'm scared, Shinji… I've never been so scared…" she cried.  
  
"I know, Asuka. I'm scared, too. Maybe we should talk about the third-"  
  
"No. Misato said not to talk about it until we met her. I think she thinks we're being watched. But God, I have that feeling all the time, now.  
  
"It's okay, Asuka. I won't let anything happen to you. Either of you." Shinji said, looking at Rei.  
  
Rei said nothing. The tears coming down from her red eyes were enough.  
  
"Something has definitely changed." Rei said as the three walked towards NERV HQ.  
  
"I don't see how. We just survived the Third Impact, watched the world get devastated, saw the human race recreated in the blink of an eye, saw the world reborn, and no one but those of us at NERV seem to have any knowledge of it. Can't see how anything could've CHANGED." Asuka growls.  
  
"I'm sorry, but I can feel it. In the air, the way people talk, the way they breathe, something about this is very wrong." Rei says, pulling back and still looking like she was going to fall down and cry.  
  
Asuka noticed it, too. "I'm sorry, Rei. This has just been really stressful on me. I never truly got over my mother's death. She… She killed a doll and thought the doll was me. It's why I hate dolls so much… Why I hated you so much…"  
  
"I am not a doll." Rei snarled.  
  
"Sure could've fooled me. All you ever did was do exactly what you were told, regardless of your own personal feelings." Asuka says.  
  
Rei stopped and turned Asuka around to face her. She held her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Do you know what happened to cause me to merge with Lillith?" she asked, quietly.  
  
Asuka shook her head, eager to learn of what she was talking about.  
  
"Shinji's father wanted to merge with Lillith, evolve the human race to what he thought was the next stage, but I felt Shinji. I felt his pain caused by the beginning of the Third Impact. I was sick and tired of taking orders from a man who used me like a doll. And that is why you never, EVER call me a doll again." Ayanami whispered into her ear.  
  
Asuka nodded her head in comprehension of what she was saying. Rei walked away from her. "Now, let's go meet Misato. She must have something very important to say to us."  
  
They all continued on without further conversation. Shinji stopped trying to come up with guesses as to the reason all of this was happening and thought of everything he had learned while nearly creating the Third Impact. Finally, they reached Misato, who stood against a wall with her eyes closed. As they approached, she opened her eyes and raised a gun at them very quickly. Seeing it was them, she lowered the gun.  
  
"Finally. We need to talk." She said.  
  
"Tell us about it." Shinji said.  
  
"Obviously, something has gone really wrong. The last thing I remember was kissing Shinji and then dying." Misato says.  
  
"I know, this is just-" Shinji started to say.  
  
"Wait a minute! You kissed him?" a disgusted Asuka says.  
  
"Yes. I never thought I'd see him again, so-"  
  
"UGH! That has got to be the most disgusting thing I've ever heard! You, of all people, kissing wonder boy over here?!"  
  
"Asuka, you are really getting off the point here!" Shinji says.  
  
"Ah, standin' up for your lover now, Shinji?" Asuka asks, grinning at him.  
  
"Er, um… I…" Shinji stuttered.  
  
"We don't have time to worry about who kissed who or what kid at school is hot and who's ugly, we need to find out what the hell happened!" Rei exclaims.  
  
"Keep your voice down!" Misato whispers.  
  
"Why? Why did we need to meet in secret?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Whoever's responsible for undoing the Third Impact might be spying on us. Something happened, and it's big." Misato explains.  
  
"Of course it's big."  
  
Everyone looked around themselves to see where the voice had come from. It had just popped out of nowhere. It had been a male voice, around the age of 14-16, and slightly deep.  
  
"Who are you?!" Asuka demanded.  
  
"The hand that rocks the cradle."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean? Do you mean someone who manipulated us?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Nah, I just liked that movie. 'The Hand that rocks the cradle.'"  
  
"Where are you?" Rei asks, squinting to look into shadows to see if there was someone hiding.  
  
"I believe the actual question is, 'Where are you going?'"  
  
"No, it's not. The question is where are you!" Misato shouts, pointing the gun in multiple directions.  
  
"I thought the question was, 'Who are you?' Or perhaps it is, 'What do you want?' Maybe even, 'Why are you here?'"  
  
"What are you talking about?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Haven't you people seen any twentieth-century TV? Babylon 5, one of the best shows on television? Although fifth season sort of screwed it over… Stupid Turner Network Television…"  
  
"Show yourself!" Misato demanded, ready to pull the trigger at a moment's notice.  
  
"Ah, can't I just be all mysterious and stuff? It's a lot more fun!"  
  
"Damn it, show yourself!" Misato screamed.  
  
"Well, since you asked so nicely."  
  
Out of a completely luminated wall, the boy from Shinji's earlier experience walked over to them, a smug expression on his face. Shinji recognized him immediately, and was too dazed to understand what was happening.  
  
"Hello!" he said, still looking chipper.  
  
Misato raised her gun to meet the boy's face. He continued to smile, even as Misato pulled the trigger from an subconscious urge to do so. The boy fell back onto the ground, a small hole in his forehead, and his smile faded immediately.  
  
"YOU KILLED HIM! WHY?!" Asuka demands.  
  
"OW!"  
  
Everyone looked down at the corpse, who now was holding his head in pain, and he got up. He walked over to Misato, the bullet hole now gone, and went right in front of her face.  
  
"Has anyone ever told you," he whispers.  
  
"That you have a SERIOUS ANGER MANAGEMENT PROBLEM!?!?" He continues, shouting.  
  
Misato dropped the gun onto the ground, not comprehending how he could have survived. Even Rei was stunned at this boy who had just survived a bullet, point-blank to the head.  
  
"That just gave me an effin' migraine! How would you like it if I put a gun to your head and shot you?!"  
  
Misato's eyes slowly began to water as the boy put the gun about a foot away from Misato's head. The others were too shocked to respond. Misato closed her eyes, and he pulled the trigger. A small flag with the word BANG on it appeared.  
  
"Geez, you have no sense of humor!"  
  
He spun the flag around as he shook his hand around in a circle. Misato slowly got up and walked over to the others.  
  
"Who are you?" Shinji asks.  
  
"It's not my time to say." He replied.  
  
"Who are you?" Asuka repeats.  
  
The boy thought for a moment. He then snapped his fingers and replied, "Who decides that the toast lands butter side down every time? Who decides that red means stop and green means go? Who decides the workday is from 9:00 to 5:00, instead of 11:00 to 4:00? Who decides that the hemlines will be below the knee this year, and short again, the next year? Who draws up the borders, controls the currency, handles all those little decisions that happen transparently around us?"  
  
"I don't know." Shinji replies.  
  
"Correct. I'm with them. Same group, different department. I'm here to help you." He says.  
  
"Well, if you can tell us what's happened, that'd be a great help." Rei speaks.  
  
"I'm not really allowed to tell you straight out. But to learn truly, you must save the 'I' that does not see." He replies.  
  
"The eye that does not see? What the hell's that supposed to mean!?" Asuka demands, almost ready to strangle the boy.  
  
"You must not kill the one who is already dead." He says, sensing Asuka's anger.  
  
"WE DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Shinji shouts.  
  
"Understanding is a three-edged sword." He said, grinning gleefully.  
  
Shinji had had enough. He walked up to the boy and smashed his fist right into his nose. The others were taken back by this very un-Shinji thing to do. The boy walked back, holding a bleeding nose, who yelled, "OW! What the hell did you do that for, Ikari?!"  
  
"I am SICK AND TIRED OF THIS. You people never give me a straight answer! It's always some stupid, cryptic metaphor that we can't answer! It happens in my mind, it happens out here, and now I want to know JUST WHAT THE HELL YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" he explains.  
  
The boy's nosebleed disappears, and he pushes Shinji into a wall and stands a foot away from him. "You want answers? FINE. This isn't real. Everything that has been happening in the past 36 hours has been a lie. You are all laying in a SEELE lab, with them trying to find out the secret behind creating the Third Impact, and them pumping you all up with psychotropic drugs, NONE OF THIS IS REAL! There was no third impact, Rei never merged with Lillith, and you people are all under the experiment that will doom mankind! Gum?" The boy held out a piece of bubble gum to Shinji.  
  
  
  
To Be Continued… 


	2. Aftermath, part 2: There is no Spoon

"A fake?" Shinji asked, ignoring the piece of gum the boy had offered to him.  
  
"Yes, Shinji Ikari. SEELE plugged you four, and Ritsuko and a few other NERV personnel, into a cybernetic web where you are all sharing the same dream-like experience. They've injected a large amount of psychotropic drugs into all of you, creating the illusions you see all around you. What they want is the secret behind creating third impact." The boy said, withdrawing the gum back into his pants pocket.  
  
"But that doesn't make sense! We don't know how to cause third impact!" Asuka exclaims.  
  
"They think you do, and you've just proven it. Thirty-six hours ago, each of you was taken from wherever you were at the time, and loaded into the cybernet. Within each of your minds held a small piece of creating the Third Impact. What they did not expect was that within your own minds, you three's psychological trauma would each be restored in different ways." The boy said, pointing to Shinji, Asuka, and Rei.  
  
The boy walked over to Asuka. "You, Asuka Langley, were in a state of mental collapse after your mind-rape with the fifteenth angel, your fear of dolls, etc. However, the soul of EVA Unit 02, your mother's soul, reached out from it's cage in NERV and touched your mind, giving you the strength you needed."  
  
Asuka snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "I knew I knew you! I've felt your presence before! When the Angel first mind-raped me, I wanted to surrender and have it collapse my mind, but there was something there, eating at the back of my mind, telling me to never lose faith! It was your voice!"  
  
The boy took a bow and walked over to Rei. "Rei Ayanami, you are a unique being. You're a clone of both Shinji Ikari's mother's DNA and the DNA of Lillith, virtually making you half-angel. That is why Kaoru said you two were similar, he being the seventeenth angel. But you are unique for another reason: Your soul is transferable. Every time you died, first by the hands of Ritsuko's mother, then by self-destructing EVA 00, your soul would jump to the next clone processed. However, your soul was so unstable that every time you piloted Unit 00, your soul jumped into it to power it. Your soul, for the first time, did not realize what was happening, and that is why EVA Unit 00 went berserk on its first test. Also, without any soul to strengthen your willpower, you would only do what was commanded. With one stroke, I end this soul jumping."  
  
The boy snapped his fingers, and Rei collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath. Shinji ran over to her to help her.  
  
"Are you alright?" he asked.  
  
"Yes," she said, beginning to smile. "I've never felt better in my life!"  
  
"I've just locked your soul into that body. It means you won't be able to pilot an EVA anymore, but your willpower has now increased by 78%. You can make conscious decisions, and your fear of failure has nearly been removed. Heck, you may even turn into Asuka!" the boy said.  
  
"Hey!" Asuka shouted in resentment.  
  
"You know what, I know you, too! Your presence is so familiar… Hey, when my EVA first went berserk, I was almost thrust clean out of the seat and into the front. The problem was the impact would've probably fractured my skull. But then, I felt a force holding me down, almost holding on to me. Was that you?" Rei asks, examining the boy closely.  
  
The boy nodded and smiled. He turned to Shinji, who stood with a blank expression on his face at the boy. "And then there was one. You Shinji, are the most unique. You've had, on several occasions, the chance to move on and be happy, but your ties to your friends and loyalty to the human race have prevailed."  
  
"I'm scum. That's all I am." Shinji said, staring at the ground.  
  
The boy rolled his eyes and whacked Shinji on the side of the head. "Would you just get over it, Captain Pessimist? So life's not perfect, the world is a horrible place, and you were used once again. GET OVER IT ALREADY!"  
  
"If life were fair, this wouldn't happen." Shinji said, looking at his hands now.  
  
The boy thought for a moment, and then kneeled down to Shinji's level. "Can you imagine what life would be like, if it were fair? And all the terrible things that happened to us come because we deserved them?" he said.  
  
Shinji examined with care what he had just said.  
  
"I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe. You should too." The boy says.  
  
"Well, not exactly the self-esteem build I wanted, but it's good. Hey, I know you, too! When I was absorbed by an Angel once, I could almost feel someone shaking me around, telling me to snap out of my delusions and save the world." Shinji replied.  
  
"Ah, you remember me!" the boy said, smiling.  
  
Both stood up, and shook hands. Misato walked over to the boy. "Well, kid, what words of divine wisdom do you have for me?" she asked.  
  
The boy smiled and said, "Kaji was murdered by SEELE because he got too close to the truth of the Human Instrumentality Project."  
  
Misato's face turned grim. "It was SEELE?" she asked.  
  
"Well it's pretty obvious when you think about it." The boy says.  
  
"And what is the truth of the Human Instrumentality Project, Mr. Wizard?" Asuka asks.  
  
"To create a Third Impact which would evolve human beings to a next stage of life beyond the comprehension of the human mind and soul." The boy says.  
  
"Well, isn't that a good thing? The human race would evolve as a whole, to create a unified future without war, death, or hatred!" Shinji suggests.  
  
The boy was suddenly holding Shinji up then, without any notice of how he moved without anyone seeing it. He shoved Shinji into a wall and screamed, "CREATING AN ARTIFICIAL THIRD IMPACT IS THE LAST THING YOU WANT TO DO! THERE WERE SEVENTEEN ANGELS SENT TO JUDGE MANKIND, THE EIGHTEENTH, FOR THEIR RIGHT TO EVOLVE TO A HIGHER STATE OF BEING. YOU FAILED. You've proven yourselves to be a brutal, utterly hostile race, which will do nothing but destroy any living creature you encounter or possibly each other! The judgment of the Angels is that in a hundred thousand to a million years you will be ready. NOT A SECOND BEFORE. If SEELE initiates a Third Impact, the human race will be nothing but a puddle of LCL, and their souls will be brought to a Purgatory until their real time of evolution. However, no one has survived the Purgatory for more than two thousand years, usually begging Satan to bring them out of it after the first hundred years or so. So unless you want the human race to become a yellow, translucent goo on the floor of NERV HQ, I recommend you stop thinking the Third Impact is a good thing."  
  
"I get the picture…" Shinji says. The boy let him down.  
  
"Alright, but what do we plan to do about it? Unless you haven't noticed, we're standing here in our minds, with no clue as to how to escape." Misato reminds them.  
  
"There's an old saying that comes to mind." The boy says.  
  
"Every lock has a key?" Rei asks.  
  
"Actually, the phrase is, 'There is no spoon.'" The boy corrects.  
  
The four of them gave him very confused looks. The boy rolled his eyes and explained, "Back in the good ol' days before the Second Impact, a movie came out called the Matrix. It said that the life we live in is actually a neuro-simulation called the Matrix. Machines we had created were draining our very life, and only a handful of people outside of the Matrix knew. A group of children within the Matrix had become aware, but were still connected. They learned of a way to bend a few parts of the Matrix for their own needs. Like, for example, becoming psychic or telekinetic. That whole thing with bending spoons is actually just someone in the Matrix realizing that it's only a simulation, and that there is no spoon. Realizing and understanding this, they bend and twist the spoon any way they wished. And so, we must know that this is a simulation," and then he held up a large spoon. "And that there is no spoon."  
  
"And exactly what are we supposed to do when we wake up? We need a plan. They're not just going to give us some milk and cookies and a pat on the back for waking up and revealing the secret." Misato says.  
  
"That's where Rei comes in. Rei, being part Angel, can generate an AT Field. The dummy plugs for the EVAs haven't been fully installed yet, so we have to move quickly. Rei, I want you to just keep thinking that this is not real. Wake up first, and show those SEELE troops the one thing about being human that makes people afraid of being human." The boy commands.  
  
Rei nods, and closes her eyes. After fifteen seconds, she disappears from the group completely.  
  
"And what is that?" Asuka asks.  
  
"The ability to die." The boy scowls.  
  
Rei opened her eyes and activated the AT field. The technology on her forehead and connected into her system disintegrated immediately, and all the scientists working suddenly had their lives flash before their eyes as the AT field rammed into them and annihilated them. Their bloody remains splattered against the walls, arranging patterns of red and white as their bones slammed into the walls and were crushed into powder. Rei slammed her fist through the glass covering around her and the LCL in the tank she was in leaked out as she kicked and punched the covering to let her out. She finally made an opening big enough, and she walked calmly out, evading pieces of broken glass on the ground. She saw Asuka, Shinji, and Misato in similar conditions in several other tanks.  
  
Rei walked over to the console next to Shinji's tank, and looked at the system. She pressed some buttons to drain the LCL in the tank, and then opened the door to open the tank. Shinji slowly opened his eyes and felt the cybernetic wires plugged into his head. He yelped, and reached out to pull them out of his face, but Rei grabbed his hands and shushed him. She slowly pulled the wires out. Shinji calmed down and walked out of the tube. The two revived both Asuka and Misato, both still dripping from LCL fluids.  
  
"Well, what are we supposed to do now? They're bound to know what we've done by now." Asuka says.  
  
"We must strike back, hard and fast." Said the voice of the boy.  
  
The four of them looked around to see the boy walking through a wall and approaching them.  
  
"Who are you, anyway?" Misato asks.  
  
"I've said it once and I'll say it again: the time is not right. There are still other NERV personnel plugged into these cyber-interface nets. They haven't been moved because they weren't deemed important enough as you were. Find them, disconnect them, and explain the situation to them. Now, do you want to take down SEELE or not?" the boy asks.  
  
They all nod. "We'll contact my father, tell him to scramble-" Shinji starts to say.  
  
"Your father," interrupts the boy, "has gone into hiding. The second reason SEELE did this to you was because they wanted to find out if you knew anything about your father's disappearance."  
  
"So what are we going to do now?" Rei asks.  
  
"SEELE will undoubtedly try to do as they did in your dream: create falsified records of NERV preparing to create Third Impact. We're going to beat them to the punch." The boy says with an evil grin.  
  
"Meaning…?" Asuka asks.  
  
"Just get everyone awake, and power up the EVAs. By the way, I've added some improvements to the three operating ones." The boy says.  
  
"Three? Unit 00 exploded." Rei reminds him.  
  
"Who says I was talking about Unit 00?" the boy grins evilly.  
  
The scene is a dark and empty room. One by one, twelve lights shine down onto black monoliths, each one numbered SEELE 01-12. Through a holographic interface, they all now saw one another and a holographic view screen in the center, showing news scenes.  
  
"We've just received conformation of this news report." SEELE 03 says.  
  
The mute sound of the news report suddenly flared on, and a male reporter told of the situation, "This news footage leaked from NERV shows and tells of a plot behind a secret organization known as SEELE to initiate the Third Impact, which will render life on this planet to a so-called state of evolution higher than our current status. However, these have been interpreted as words of a fanatics group who believe the world must evolve through means of the Third Impact. JSSDF forces have been dispatched along with the somewhat-legendary EVA Units 01 and 02. It has been reported that SEELE attempted to use drugs and cybernetic techniques to torture the EVA pilots for information regarding the Third Impact, but fought back enough to stop the plot. All authorities in the area are headed for a location only known to NERV and military forces, where it is believed SEELE's meeting place and HQ is located. We will continue live coverage of this broadcast as it occurs."  
  
"This is true. Long-range perimeter reports have confirmed the approach of the EVAs and a large armada of JSSDF troops, along with military troops from China, Germany, and air units from America and Great Britain." SEELE 12 reports.  
  
"There is no more time left to analyze our findings. Release EVAs 05-13 to hold off the attack, and have them only disable Units 01 and 02. Both may prove to be useful in-"  
  
SEELE 01 never finished that sentence, for the holographic view screen suddenly flickered and changed. The image of the mysterious boy now appeared on screen, and he looked as if he had been watching them this entire time.  
  
"Well aren't you all just the party poopers. Papa spank!" he says with obvious glee.  
  
The SEELE members did not recognize the boy, nor had any idea of what he was talking about. All of a sudden, the building around them began to shake and tremble.  
  
"That'll be one of Uncle Sam's long range cruise missiles, disabling your weapons grid that is attached to your installation. All you have left is your precious Evangelions. And by the way, we have plenty of those, too. Ta!" he shouts, and the image blinks out.  
  
Large, one foot-long bullets were loaded into auto-machine gun turrets outside of the SEELE HQ and fired in rapid quantities at two JSSDF bombers and EVA Unit 01. One of the bombers vaporized from a hit on their fuel line, and the other had its wing damaged, so it pulled back. The bullets bounced harmlessly off of Unit 01, and the gesture was returned with Unit 01 opening a barrage of bullets from it's giant automatic rifle in it's hands to the turret, slicing it into three pieces.  
  
"So let me get this straight, you just plugged in an S2 engine into Asuka's EVA?" Shinji asks the boy on the intercom.  
  
"Yes." The boy replies.  
  
"You did this with no former training, no prior knowledge of how to install an S2 engine safely into an EVA?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Yes." The boy confirms.  
  
"How did you do that?"  
  
"Do what?"  
  
"How did you just do a procedure you didn't know how to do?"  
  
"It's easy when you have 900 years experience."  
  
"Hey, moron, in case you didn't realize it, we have their little EVA pets on their way up to attack us." Asuka says, opening up a vid-link.  
  
Sure enough, Shinji looked to see eight holes in the ground opening up, and white EVAs with reptile heads and large wings came flying out of the holes and into the sky.  
  
"Wait a second, there are only eight of them! Where's the ninth?" Rei asks from inside a troop carrier.  
  
"It doesn't matter. We should be able to handle these things easily, right, Asuka? You took them out alone." Shinji says.  
  
"That was when it was a dream, Shinji. This is the really real world, not some illusion brought on by drugs. Boy, kid, dream-guy, whatever you want to call yourself, we need you." Asuka says.  
  
The boy tightened his grip on the control levers. He answered, "We are there."  
  
The boy was piloting an EVA. It was white, and it was flying thanks to two large jetpacks on its shoulders. Its head was similarly shaped to Unit 02, but it only had two eyes. It had a few scorch marks on it, like it had been in an explosion, but it had markings on it, mostly saying "EVA Unit 04."  
  
To Be Continued… 


	3. Aftermath, part 3: End to Instrumentalit...

The boy tightened his grip on the control levers. He answered, "We are there."  
  
The boy was piloting an EVA. It was white, and it was flying thanks to two large jetpacks on its shoulders. Its head was similarly shaped to Unit 02, but it only had two eyes. It had a few scorch marks on it, like it had been in an explosion, but it had writing on it, mostly saying "EVA Unit 04." Around it were heavy-class military helicopters and bombers. Long- range tactical jets flew past them to send relatively small missiles at the installation, taking out two military garages and an un-powered missile turret.  
  
"So, tell me again how you found Unit 04? I thought it exploded." Shinji states.  
  
"You know, explosions are a funny thing. They can blow something apart, or they can send something someplace else. When the S2 engine was being loaded into the EVA, they realized that someone had done a flimsy job of putting on the sealant that kept the explosive fuel content in the engine. Before they could repair it, the fuel exploded, creating a big enough blast to wipe out the entire base. The EVA, however, survived. The explosion destroyed the base, but was powerful enough to send the EVA out of the normal space-time continuum, however badly damaged. I, having the ability to transverse spaceo-temporal anomalies and different levels of consciousness detected it and managed to use telekinetic and heavenly forces to repair and store it in a time-space anomaly that-" The boy stopped when he noticed the three EVA pilots just staring at him in confusion. "Never mind."  
  
"Alright troops, here's the plan: tanks and ground units evade enemy EVAs and proceed straight for the enemy HQ. I want prisoners taken; kill only when absolutely necessary, and the SEELE council are to all be taken alive. Air attack vessels: Fire a couple of shots at the EVAs on your way to the HQ to distract them, but do not openly engage the EVAs in full combat. Shinji, Asuka: The EVAs are ours. All other units: BREAK AND ATTACK!"  
  
With that command, the troops launched their full-scale assault on the SEELE HQ. About twelve jets fired homing missiles at the EVAs as they passed them, as well as helicopters sending barrages of bullets at them. The eight EVAs ignored the assaults by the air units and went straight for Units 01, 02, and 04.  
  
"Looks like 3-3-2. Hey kid, you take 2, I'll take 3, and Captain amazing in Unit 01'll take 3 as well." Asuka suggests.  
  
"Roger that, flamingo inferno." The boy says, smiling.  
  
"What'd you call-" Asuka shouts as the boy shuts off the intercom.  
  
Unit 04 ran straight at the nearest EVA. The markings said Unit 08 on it, and the boy smiled as he pulled his progressive knife from the sheath on Unit 04's leg. Unit 08 pulled out its double-lanced weapon and prepared to block as Unit 04 continued to run at it. As Unit 04 prepared to strike down, Unit 08 rose it's weapon to block, but Unit 04 lept into the air and the jets on his shoulders kicked in. He flew straight at Unit 08 and rose up a little, with his progressive knife aimed down. Increasing speed, the EVA continued to fly with preparation for a somewhat difficult move. Unit 04 sliced into the lance weapon, cutting it straight in half, but Unit 04 didn't stop there. As soon as it was done with the weapon, Unit 04 used the progressive knife to cut straight through the AT field of Unit 08 and then through its head. The EVA collapsed onto the ground with the two halves of its head now lying on the ground, leaking fuel and a blood-like substance.  
  
Seeing its companion fall, Unit 06 ran at Unit 04. The boy made the EVA turn around and deactivate the flight jets. The EVA landed on the ground gracefully, and Unit 04 threw his progressive knife straight at Unit 06. Unit 06 lept into the air to evade the attack, but was too slow and the knife hit its lower leg. Unit 06 slammed face first into the ground in pain. It grabbed onto its leg with one free hand and braced himself on the ground with his weapon. Unit 04 ran over as Unit 06 raised its weapon to counter it. Unit 04, however, kicked the lance out of its hand and picked it up in mid air. Unit 06 punched Unit 04 in the stomach, but Unit 04 pulled the progressive knife out of the EVA's leg and sliced the hand clean off. Unit 06 held its stump of an arm to its stomach and Unit 04 used the weapon of Unit 06 to slice it into its neck, and pulled to the left, chopping its head off.  
  
Unit 12 came running at Unit 04, but was jumped by Unit 02. Unit 12 was pinned to the ground as Asuka yelled and used her EVA's arms to rip into the back of Unit 12's neck and pull out the dummy plug. Unit 12's arms were flailing wildly, trying to get Unit 02 off of it. Finally, with two kicks from its hindquarters, Asuka was bumped off. Unit 12 jumped up and threw its lance at Unit 02. Sensing immense déjà vu from the dream when the lance had turned into the Lance of Longinus, Asuka pulled out her progressive knife and blocked the lance's approach, and she caught it with her right hand. She put it in front of her, and slowly bent the lance in half, and threw it to the side. She then threw her progressive knife at Unit 12, whose head exploded on impact from the knife.  
  
Units 09 and 07 came running at Unit 02 from opposite directions. They had noticed a pattern in the deaths of the last three EVAs, and decided on a new strategy. Asuka thought for a second, trying to determine what her course of action should be. Both drew their lances, so Unit 02 ran over and grabbed its progressive knife from the head of Unit 12. They were very close now, so Asuka prepared herself by raising her progressive knife in defense, and then readying the EVA's leg to kick away the other lance. The plan worked as Unit 09 was stuck against Unit 02's knife and Unit 07 was without a weapon. Asuka then grabbed Unit 07 with her free hand by the neck and threw with all her might into Unit 09. She pulled back as Unit 07's arm was pierced by Unit 09's lance and was slammed into it. Unit 07 pulled itself away from Unit 09 and ran at Unit 02, who spun around once and sent its right fist into it's face, forcing a powerful blow straight across its face and knocking it over. Unit 09 readied its lance again and ran at Unit 02, who picked up Unit 07's lance and blocked with it. While blocking with one arm, Unit 02 grabbed out its progressive knife and stabbed right into the general location of the heart for a human being. The EVA fell back onto the ground, it's power lights shutting off. Asuka stood and smiled for a second, savoring the moment. However, she didn't see Unit 07 preparing to strike down with its fists, with enough force in the blow to knock Asuka down. However, another lance impaled its other side, ripping straight through it. Unit 02 turned around and saw Unit 04 holding up the dead body of Unit 07.  
  
"I could've taken it." Asuka murmured to the mysterious boy.  
  
"Could've, should've, would've, DIDN'T." the boy replies.  
  
Unit 01 was aiming it's giant rifle at the sky, where the last three EVAs had taken to. He aimed carefully at Unit 05, and fired, piercing its left wing. The EVA fell towards the ground, and Unit 01 began to run at it, but the other two EVAs flew down and bit into Unit 01's arms and continued to fly, and hurtled Unit 01 into the ground. Shinji bumped around inside the entry plug in an attempt to get the EVA up again. Finally succeeding on getting on its knees, the EVA was met with the two winged EVAs grabbing onto its arms and flying him higher this time. Having already thought of how to counter it this time, Unit 01 raised the arm with the gun in its hand at the stomach of Unit 11, and fired, cutting clean holes straight through the EVA, who lost its grip and let go of Unit 01 as it yelped in pain, and then fell onto the ground, dying. Now, only Unit 10 held onto Unit 01, whose legs were scraping on the ground because of the low altitude.  
  
Unit 01 jumped up and then grabbed onto the EVA's back and got on. Unit 01 rose its weapon onto the back of Unit 10's head and pulled the trigger once, sending one bullet into its head. The EVA, with no control of its body, now began to fall onto the ground. Unit 01 lept off of it as Unit 10 fell, its body being mutilated by the ground as it skidded across until finally coming to a stop. Unit 01 got up and Shinji just breathed, trying to get wind of what he had just been through. However, Unit 05 slammed its foot into Unit 01's backside, and it fell down, face first, into the ground. Unit 05 jumped onto Unit 01's back and prepared to strike down with its lance. However, the lance was hit away as Unit 04's progressive knife sliced both of Unit 05's hands off. Unit 02 pulled Unit 05 off of Unit 01's back and punched it in the face. Unit 04 put Unit 05 in a headlock, and Unit 01 got up. Unit 05 struggled as much as it could as Unit 02 restrained its legs. Unit 01 walked over to it and slammed its hand straight into the EVA's chest, digging deeper and deeper, and then closing. Unit 01 pulled its arm out fast, revealing that he had just ripped out Unit 05's S2 engine. The EVA deactivated right afterwards.  
  
"Geez… A lot harder than the dream…" Asuka pants.  
  
"Wait a second, where's the ninth one?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Maybe the system to eject it failed." The boy says.  
  
Another vid screen opened up, this time of Misato. She said, "Hey gang, we have a little problem back at NERV."  
  
"What?" Shinji asks.  
  
"One of SEELE's EVAs is here! It hasn't made any hostile moves yet, it's just approaching, but it has a rather large beam cannon in its arms." Misato explains.  
  
The boy understood immediately. "By the web of dimensions, no! We must get back there immediately!"  
  
"Why? No beam cannon can do any serious damage to NERV, unless it repeats what we did to that one angel…" Rei says.  
  
"Don't you understand?! It's going to try to release Lillith!" The boy shouts, activating the jets on Unit 04.  
  
EVA Unit 13 walked silently until making it to the one spot several thousand feet above Lillith's chamber. It took aim carefully with the cannon in its hands, and set it to full power. Immediately, a large beam of white energy struck down into the ground, cutting down through the layers of dirt and rock until reaching the metal plating for NERV. It took a lot more time to cut through it, but Unit 13 was patient. It would initiate the Third Impact, wiping out life on the planet Earth.  
  
"Like hell you will!" the boy shouts, seeing he was two miles away from Unit 13.  
  
"He's just cleared the fourth layer, he's almost there!" Misato reported.  
  
Unit 13 saw the three EVAs approaching. Immediately, it took out its lance and sent it hurtling at Unit 04. The boy ignored it, but the lance struck through its belly and stabbed it into the ground. Unit 13 then continued digging into the ground. Units 01 and 02 were still farther behind from Unit 04, who was trying to pull out the lance even while systems began to disconnect everywhere. Finally, Unit 13 cleared the last point as Units 01 and 02 were still a mile away. The EVA lept down through the hole, falling for about three seconds, and then arrived down in the chamber, smashing the dock as it landed and had its feet in some LCL. It looked at Lillith, and then walked over to her. Lillith didn't even seem to care to look at it, but did so anyway. Unit 13 walked behind the cross, and slammed his foot into one side, snapping the wood that had been stuck to Lillith, freeing one arm. It repeated the process on the other arm, freeing it entirely. Lillith began to float upwards through the hole Unit 13 had made.  
  
"Oh bloody hell." The boy says, watching it through a camera from his EVA.  
  
The boy suddenly activated the ejection on the entry plug and got out.  
  
The twelve SEELE members, even with explosions and sparks flying around them, watched as Lillith began to ascend upwards.  
  
"The program is nearly complete." SEELE 01 says.  
  
"And they will thank us for it." SEELE 04 says.  
  
The boy could not take it anymore. He was not ready to let everything he had fought for die like this. Units 01 and 02 watched Lillith began to ascend, but then noticed the boy holding his arms out in the air. Suddenly, bulges grew on his back, and then the green plug suit he wore began to split in the back. The sight before them stunned Asuka and Shinji as white energy began to grow out of the boy's back. Then, suddenly, they were eight feet long energy bands that all came out of the same two spots on the boy's back. They flapped up and the boy flew towards Lillith. Unit 13 put it's arm in front of the boy, but the boy just narrowed his eyes and increased speed, slamming straight through the hand and punching a hole through it and continued to fly towards Lillith. Lillith took one look at the boy and stopped floating. It just hovered there as the boy flew up to above it. They just hovered there for ten seconds, until the boy finally spoke.  
  
"This is not the time. They," the boy spoke, pointing towards Asuka and Shinji, "are not for you…yet. Do you understand?"  
  
Lillith nodded.  
  
"Leave now. You know how POed the big J gets when he has to wait." The boy said, smiling.  
  
Lillith nodded, and disappeared.  
  
Everyone could hardly believe their eyes. Only four people truly understood what the boy had been talking about, but not understanding the second part of what he had said. The boy looked around him. He could already tell people were watching him, waiting for him to speak, to clarify what he had said. Three News networks were pointing cameras at him.  
  
The boy then spoke out loud; knowing those of NERV, SEELE, and anyone else involved in the last 37 hours would hear him. "My job is done. You are not ready to evolve. If you should survive and find total peace in the next few hundred thousand to a million years, you will be ready."  
  
The boy then flew up towards the sky until he was out of sight from the world.  
  
To Be Continued… 


	4. What Do You Want?

Report 398  
  
From: Misato Katsuragi  
  
To: United Nations Special Division  
  
Subject: Assuming leadership of NERV and end of SEELE  
  
Date: January 2, 2016  
  
I was quite surprised when I was promoted to head of NERV until it's scheduled disbanding in 2017. NERV Special Forces are still searching for Gendou Ikari, father of the third child, Shinji Ikari and former head of NERV. No progress has been made ever since he disappeared December 29, 2015, while escaping from SEELE search forces.  
  
The first thing I'd like to relay are the events happening in the past 48 hours. First and foremost was of SEELE forces entering NERV by means of unsecured waste hatches and burning in from underneath ventilation ducts. After releasing a gas that rendered all NERV personnel unconscious, they fitted Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langley, Ritsuko Akagi, Maya Ibuki, Shigeru Aoba, Makato Hyuga, and myself into a cybernet, linking all our brains into a dream-like scenario. The scenario was induced into our system by means of psychotropic drugs, which have been flushed out of our systems now. SEELE's intention was to learn all details about initiating the Third Impact before proceeding. When they were finished, they placed us all in a second dream state for happiness until the Third Impact would occur as payment for our services to them.  
  
Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and myself all retreated to a section within the dream scenario, where a mysterious boy met us. At first, we assumed he was a figment of our collective imaginations in the dream state, but he proved to be a living being by existing outside of the dream. He explained the situation of the dream state to us, and how to escape from it.  
  
Escaping, we informed the UN of SEELE's plans, and formed a coalition of multiple governments' military forces in a combined strike against SEELE, along with EVA Units 01 and 02. The mysterious boy accompanied us with the supposedly destroyed Unit 04, not giving any real explanation of how he came across it. We destroyed eight of the nine Evangelions SEELE had produced for their own purposes. The ninth was already at NERV, attempting to free the being known as Lillith and initiate Third Impact. As Lillith ascended into the sky, the mysterious boy left Unit 04 and, you are not going to believe this, grew wings from his back. He flew above Lillith and said, "This is not the time. They are not for you…yet."  
  
Lillith then proceeded to leave, and the mysterious boy disappeared as well. For the rest of the time, military forces have arrested the SEELE council and most of SEELE's military personnel. Religious fanatics have begun uprising in several areas of the world, claiming we have lost our chances of ascending to Heaven, or Eden, or whatever they call the Afterlife these days. Repairs on Units 01, 02, and 04 have begun. Unit 00's repair is still under consideration. Until such time as Unit 00's repair is confirmed, Rei Ayanami is now the designated pilot of Unit 04. END OF MESSAGE.  
  
Large cranes placed the lifeless body of Unit 04 onto several trucks, all linked together. The trucks drove out and back to inside NERV HQ. Rei, Shinji, and Asuka watched from a nearby building.  
  
"They say it's going to take two days to repair it. It'll take another two days for me to synch with it. Then we need to test it, which will take another day. I'm going to miss the mission, guys." Rei says.  
  
"What mission?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Erg, Shinji, you idiot! Didn't you get the mission form? In southern India, a rogue group has stolen some EVA plans, and are constructing three giant robots similar to the Evangelions, but entirely mechanical. We're going down there to take them out." Asuka explains.  
  
"Great. More killing." Shinji says, hanging his head down.  
  
"Don't you remember what that boy said? The world's not a happy place, but it's people like the ones who we're being sent to destroy who threaten our chances to make the world a happy place." Asuka says.  
  
"It doesn't make it right." Shinji replies.  
  
"I'm not saying it's right. Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do. We have to accept that and do what's best. Sometimes doing what's best and doing the right thing are not same." Asuka explains.  
  
"Whatever. I'm going to get something to eat." Shinji says, walking away.  
  
Asuka frowns when he's out of sight. "Poor kid."  
  
"Suddenly looking at other people's feeling for a change, Asuka?" Rei asks, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Cram it, Rei. After what I went through in that dream, I've had an epiphany." Asuka replies.  
  
"We all did, except for Shinji. His emotions towards himself and the rest of the world switch on and off. Sometimes he's Captain Apathy, and others he's Superman." Rei speaks.  
  
"The kid needs a good kick in the butt to wake him up to the real world. I thought that boy gave it to him." Asuka says.  
  
"It's going to take more than him to do that. Most likely Shinji's going to retreat into his own mind to find meaning." Rei says.  
  
"He spends too much time alone. The guy needs a girlfriend." Asuka says.  
  
"He had one, remember?" Rei inquires.  
  
"I remember Mana, but she still hasn't come back, even though the original purpose of EVA is done with. She's probably forgotten about Shinji, anyway." Asuka returns.  
  
"Don't be too certain about the power of love. It does wondrous things for a person." Rei smiles.  
  
"Like you and Shinji's dad?" Asuka queries.  
  
Rei sneered. "Remember, I'm the third clone. Maybe the other two appreciated him, but to me, he'll just be a person who tried to use me. He tried to use me for his own twisted desires."  
  
"Way I hear it is that he saved the last you's life." Asuka says.  
  
"That wasn't me. My soul's finally with me, and I know him only for what he tried to do to the world, and how I was just a puppet."  
  
"That was a dream."  
  
"Besides, we're supposed to be helping Shinji. Why don't you date him?" Rei asks.  
  
"Why don't you? He obviously likes you more." Asuka replies.  
  
"Because I'm a clone of his mother and an angel. I think the whole mother thing isn't going to help him much." Rei explains.  
  
"Touché." Asuka replies.  
  
"We've tried over ten locations where Gendou was most likely to have gone. Nothing." Shigeru reports to Misato.  
  
"Then try the places it's unlikely for him to be. We have to find him, immediately. God knows what he's planning…" Misato replies.  
  
"Understood, mam." Shigeru says, walking away.  
  
Shigeru saluted and calmly walked out of Misato's office. Misato looked at the picture of Kaji she kept on her desk.  
  
"Why did that kid lie about the murder of Kaji?" she asked herself.  
  
"Okay, here's the plan: JSSDF forces will begin the assault, taking out the militant group's main defenses. The robots they've created, using an anagram of Evangelions for the name, called Niolegnave, have an energy field protecting them similar to an AT field, but cruder and requiring a lot of power and several generators to create them. This energy field protects them from conventional attack, so we're going to need the EVAs to handle them. Do not touch the energy field with the EVA's body, though! The field will break down the molecules of whatever touches it into harmless atoms." Misato explains through the vid system.  
  
"So what are we supposed to fight with?" Asuka asks.  
  
"The rifles for the EVAs have been refitted with a particle dispersion system. In a concentrated attack for ten seconds, it should disable the field in whatever section you hit it in, leaving them vulnerable to attack." Misato explains.  
  
"When will the JSSDF forces start attacking?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Ten seconds ago." Misato reports. "Sit back and wait until we give you the signal."  
  
Misato's signal bleeps out, leaving Asuka and Shinji alone to talk. However, they wait twenty seconds before one of them finally speaks.  
  
"Shinji, Rei and I think you should start getting a social life." Asuka says, opening conversation.  
  
"I'm not a social person, Asuka. When did you start caring if I had a social life or not?" Shinji asks.  
  
"We're going to be facing some hard times ahead of us, Shinji. If you start to break down again, you're going to need someone you can turn to for support. Maybe you should track down Mana…" Asuka suggests.  
  
"No. She's obviously moved on, forgetting about me. It's for the best." Shinji states.  
  
"But-"  
  
"The Niolegnaves are coming out earlier than expected! This is our cue, Asuka!" Shinji reports.  
  
Asuka stiffened up and readied herself for battle. "Ready when you are, wonder boy."  
  
There were three Niolegnaves, NIO for short, guarding the installation. The installation itself was built into an iron-rich mountainside. It was about twenty stories high with gun and missile turrets built into it as minor defenses. The NIOs were about the same size as the EVAs, if not shorter. All three had their right arm enhanced by the hand being replaced by either a giant chainsaw, a giant gun, or a giant three-pronged claw. Their left arms looked like regular hands. They were otherwise human-like in appearance, besides the head, which was more ovular and had one giant red eye in the center of it. The green energy shield around them was quite visible.  
  
"Okay, I'll take the Friday the Thirteenth rip-off and the gun boy. You think you can handle The Claw?" Asuka asks.  
  
"I'll be fine. You be careful, alright?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Awe, does Shinji finally care about me?" Asuka asks, winking.  
  
"Let's get to work." Shinji says, cutting off the link.  
  
Units 01 and 02 fired out of the carriers that held them and onto the ground. While Unit 02 ran at the two she had decided to attack, Shinji had Unit 01 rise up the particle rifle and fire at the Claw NIO. The NIO was hit back a little as Unit 01 fired constantly, and the energy shield he was hitting began to show signs of collapsing, but the NIO still walked at Shinji, clamping it's claw together in preparation for a strike against Shinji. Finally, the shield collapsed, and the gun's power drained totally. Shinji threw the gun to the side and readied the Progressive knife. The NIO came running at Unit 01, but Shinji was prepared. Unit 01 jumped into the air and kicked the NIO strait in the head when it approached, knocking it to the side. Unit 01 then grabbed the dazed NIO and aimed his progressive knife at the location of its power core.  
  
"Shinji, don't! If you explode the core at this close-"  
  
But Misato's warning was ill timed as Unit 01 slammed the knife into the NIO, exploding the core. The explosion's fire burned and melted some of the outer casing of the front of Unit 01 and sent it hurtling back into the mountain. Unit 01's arms were flailing, and its left arm collided straight through the installation, cutting it in a rugged half. As it was hit into the mountain, rocks and half of the mountain fell down onto Unit 01, covering the torso, most of the arms, and the head.  
  
"Shinji?! Shinji?! Shinji, can you hear me?!" Asuka screamed as she disabled the last NIO.  
  
Shinji awoke to find half his plug suit torn. He looked around himself, noticing a big chunk of rock sticking through half of the right side of the entry plug. He saw several wet holes beneath him, and noticed the LCL was gone, obviously having been drained out. He tried to move, and was met with a sharp pain in his lower-right side. He looked down to see a large gash leaking blood quickly. Shinji took some of the tattered remains of his plug suit and pressed it against the wound. It didn't help the pain much.  
  
"Erg... Great. Buried underneath fifty tons of rock inside a giant artificially evolved human. I really screwed up this time..." he murmured to himself.  
  
"Yeah, you certainly did."  
  
Shinji didn't know where the voice had come from. He looked from one side of himself to the other, trying to understand what had happened. He suddenly looked in front of him to see the mysterious boy, sitting in front of him in his green plug suit.  
  
"You really messed up on this one, Shinji." He said.  
  
"Oh God, I'm delusional..." Shinji yelled.  
  
"Maybe. Or Maybe I'm your self-esteem, finally here to give you a good kick in the butt." The boy said, smiling.  
  
"Can't we just have a couple of cryptic mind messages and get it over with?" Shinji requests.  
  
The boy's smile faded. "No. You aren't going to give me any of that Fundamentalist mind philosophy crap now, Ikari. You are going to sit here and listen to me while I explain to you what the hell is wrong with you."  
  
Unit 02 began to dig into the mountain with its hands, trying to burrow in and get Shinji out.  
  
"Asuka, stop! You could cause another rock fall from within and kill Shinji! Wait for the teams to get here and get him out!" Misato commanded.  
  
Shinji saw his hands beginning to have bloodstains on them as he began to lose more and more blood from the wound.  
  
"You know what your problem is, Shinji? You keep running away. You couldn't bear to live without seeing your father again, so you ran to him when he asked you to come. You couldn't accept the way NERV fought so you ran away twice, trying to find some meaning. Then you kept running into your own mind to find meaning, and that wasn't enough. You still didn't think you needed to live."  
  
Shinji tried to say something, but stuttered as his voice began to lose strength.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry. You're too busy dying right now. I guess that's a little bit more important to you right now, eh? That's fine with me, because you've served your purpose, Shinji. Your life ain't worth spit now."  
  
"But I have to do something!" Asuka screamed into the communications circuit.  
  
"There's nothing you can do but offer emotional support to Shinji if he comes out alive." Misato says.  
  
"He has to. Please God, he has to."  
  
"You should start feeling really cold now, Shinji. Are you feeling cold?"  
  
Shinji was sick and tired of listening. Sick and tired of hearing how he wasn't good enough or how his purpose has been served. He was sick of cryptic messages and dreams telling him to love life. He was sick of not wanting to live. Shinji grabbed onto a nearby lever, beginning to pull himself up.  
  
"I want..." he muttered.  
  
"Want? What do you want? What, after all this, could you possibly want?"  
  
"I want to live!" he yelled, continuing to pull, but feeling the weight of the pain on him.  
  
"Why? You'll just screw your life up again."  
  
"Oh, you son of a-ARGH!" he screamed, still trying to get up.  
  
The boy walked over to him. "Fine, you want to live? Then stand up, Shinji."  
  
"I can't."  
  
"You won't. I don't care how much it hurts! Stand up!"  
  
Shinji was tired of being used. Tired of not getting what he wanted. Tired of waiting for his father to finally say he was proud of him. He knew only one real way to get him to say that, and so Shinji began to stand up.  
  
"That's it, Shinji! Stand up and fight for what you believe in! Now stand up and get yourself out of here!"  
  
Shinji began to push rocks out from atop him, still climbing up.  
  
"Come on, Shinji! Don't give into the pain, because that's just another kind of running away! Do you want to live?"  
  
"YES!"  
  
"When will you give up?"  
  
"NEVER!"  
  
"When will you run away?"  
  
"I WON'T!"  
  
"Then get up on your feet and LIVE!"  
  
Shinji roared with primal fury as he got up and began pushing away rocks, climbing up higher as he suddenly saw a piece of light shine through, and saw Asuka's plug suited hand pushing away rocks. Shinji helped with the last one, and their eyes met.  
  
"Congratulations, Ikari. You're going to live."  
  
The boy disappeared, and Shinji collapsed onto his back, smiling.  
  
To Be Continued… 


	5. Clues I

Shinji cut into some more of the French toast and ate the piece he had cut out. The mysterious boy sat onto the nearby table, cross-legged. He was now in civilian clothes of a white T-shirt and blue jeans. He had black boots on his feet.  
  
"So, how is it?" he asked.  
  
"Great! What did you call it again?" Shinji asks.  
  
"French Toast. Used to eat it back in the day." The boy replied.  
  
"And which day would that be?" Shinji inquired.  
  
"The day a long time ago." The boy replied.  
  
Shinji put down his fork and said, "You know, while I'm in the hospital, I've been watching some of that Babylon 5 show you're so obsessed with. Couldn't help but notice you taking a line from them here and there."  
  
The boy shrugs. "Babylon 5 is good for two things: entertainment and life lessons, Ikari. Take the words I steal for what they are."  
  
The conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. Shinji called for whomever it was to come in, and looked at the boy again, only to see he had disappeared. Asuka, Misato, and Rei walked into the hospital room, Rei carrying flowers.  
  
"Hey wonder boy, look what we brought." Asuka says.  
  
"Guys, you didn't have to." Shinji smiles.  
  
"You know, Shinji, seeing you smile… It's going to be a weird thing to get used to." Asuka states.  
  
"Get used to it. Thanks to that mysterious boy, I've had an epiphany. I am going to appreciate my own life. As soon as I can leave the hospital, I'm taking you three out on a night on the town." Shinji says.  
  
"Sounds nice." Rei says.  
  
"Bet you a hundred yen he gets drunk and tries to sleep with me." Asuka suggests.  
  
Rei smiles and replies, "You're on."  
  
"It seems we've all changed a little thanks to this boy. Rei has a soul directly connected to her, Asuka's not suicidal, and Shinji's not an obsessive compulsive depressant…" Misato says.  
  
"What about you, Misato? What has our new friend done for you lately?" Shinji asks, taking in a piece of French toast into his mouth.  
  
Misato just closed her eyes and didn't answer the question.  
  
"I actually wouldn't consider him a friend yet. Hey may have helped us all, but he's still being overly secretive. He doesn't tell us who he is or how he knows the things he knows. We don't know how he got the powers he has, like to walk through walls, the wings, or even his connection to us while we were in the dream SEELE created." Asuka reminds them.  
  
"I think we should let him have his privacy. He'll tell us his secrets when he's ready." Rei says.  
  
"And I won't wait."  
  
Everyone turned and saw Ritsuko leaning against the doorway.  
  
"Ritsuko, you're out of the mental recovery ward." Shinji states.  
  
"Well, having a dream where your mother betrayed you for her lover and then getting shot by that lover isn't exactly a pleasant thing to get over overnight. I'm ready to return to work at NERV, but there's a little project I'd like to run first." She says.  
  
"What kind of project?" Shinji asks.  
  
"The NERV database has files on that kid, but most of the ones pertaining to his identity are classified, accepting Gendou's handprint, voice code, retinal pattern, and handwriting before letting anyone see it. There are some unclassified files that I'm discovering. These are clues to the mysterious boy's identity. I'm going to look at them, and see if I can't find out who that kid is." Ritsuko reports.  
  
Ritsuko looked at the large computer screen in front of her. There were twenty files in front of her, and most of them were marked classified.  
  
"Computer, begin first file in non-classifieds that has relevance to my search." Ritsuko commands.  
  
The file brings up a report made in 2002 by an officer, made by audio.  
  
"We were near Antarctica today. Most of us have been scared to go there ever since that meteor collided into it, afraid of what kind of radiation or poisons could still be with it," the man said in the file.  
  
Ritsuko rolled her eyes, as she knew that it had been no meteor that had collided and caused the Second Impact.  
  
"But we were given orders, and we had to obey them. It was turning dark quickly, faster than we'd expected, and getting colder. One of my men went down below to grab us some warmer coats when we saw it. There were three of us at the time, and we'll never forget what we saw. To our right, on a floating chunk of ice, a bright light suddenly appeared. None of us had been facing the right, but we looked at it immediately as soon as we saw this large flash out of the corner of our eyes. We looked to investigate, and for about ten seconds, we could see a boy, around fourteen years old, just standing on the ice. He had his arms crossed as he looked out onto everything.  
  
"We hadn't been very surprised. Many people had been venturing down here ever since the meteor collided, thinking it was actually some kind of religious thing. What really took us by surprise was the fact that there seemed to solids sources of light on his back, shaped like wings. He suddenly looked in our direction and just disappeared. We're writing this up as a hallucination caused by the cold and possible radiation from the meteor. End report."  
  
The file stopped. Ritsuko stopped and thought for a moment.  
  
"They weren't very descriptive about the boy, but the fourteen years sounds right. But that just opens new mysteries. If this is the same boy, what was he doing at Antarctica, and how was he still fourteen after we met him fourteen years later? Computer, what's the next file un-classified?"  
  
"News coverage for opening of NERV. Would you like to process?"  
  
"Show me."  
  
The image flickered to that of a CNN broadcast, subtitled in Japanese letters.  
  
"We are here live in Tokyo-3 for the opening of an organization designed to help the world after the meteor crash of 2000. The supposed leader of this organization is one Gendou Ikari, who will is in charge of supervising the- "  
  
The reporter stopped talking when she suddenly noticed that the cameraman was looking up, now. The mysterious boy was there, floating in the sky! He was floating thanks to the wings on his back, and now wore a white jumpsuit and a cape with a large collar as well. He held in his hand a flaming white sword. Officers began to open fire upon him, but he ignored the bullets. He raised the sword into the air, and then charged down at Gendou. Gendou only looked at the boy with shock as he came down, preparing to kill Gendou where he stood. But then, two feet away from Gendou, he just disappeared. Nothing on the tape could offer any explanation or could tell what had just happened. The file ended.  
  
"What's going on here? The boy not only seen at Antarctica, but then was there at the opening of NERV? Why was he trying to kill Ikari? Well, besides the obvious reasons…"  
  
Ritsuko looked at the list of the other files, even the ones encrypted.  
  
"Computer, could I access the MAGI, have it design a program to break the codes inserted into the system?"  
  
"Affirmative. Projected time to completion of such decrypting: two weeks."  
  
"Start it. Divert any non-essential systems into it. We need those files. What about the next non-encrypted file?"  
  
"Processing…"  
  
The screen showed energy readings inside of NERV. The records were from when SEELE had placed them in the dream state. The energy readings all read normal, except for the areas containing the EVAs, which were beginning to rise in certain parts, but subsided soon afterwards. Suddenly, the energy readings in a room nearby where Misato, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei had been kept rose sharply for no reason! The readings were similar to that of the Angels', but not the same.  
  
"Could the mysterious boy be an Angel?" Ritsuko asked herself.  
  
"Unlikely."  
  
Ritsuko turned around to see Misato standing in the doorway. She walked over and looked at the energy readings.  
  
"There were seventeen Angels. All of them have been accounted for, starting with Adam and ending with Kaoru. Unless you count humans, which are technically the eighteenth Angel." She said.  
  
"But it doesn't make sense. Who is this guy? Where did he come from? What does he want?" Ritsuko asked the rhetorical questions.  
  
"How many clips about this guy do you have?" Misato questioned.  
  
"One more, from when he stopped Lillith. Everything else is highly classified." Ritsuko replies.  
  
"Show me." Misato commanded.  
  
Units 01 and 02 watched Lillith began to ascend, but then noticed the boy holding his arms out in the air. Suddenly, bulges grew on his back, and then the green plug suit he wore began to split in the back. The sight before them stunned Asuka and Shinji as white energy began to grow out of the boy's back. Then, suddenly, they were eight feet long energy bands that all came out of the same two spots on the boy's back. They flapped up and the boy flew towards Lillith. Unit 13 put it's arm in front of the boy, but the boy just narrowed his eyes and increased speed, slamming straight through the hand and punching a hole through it and continued to fly towards Lillith. Lillith took one look at the boy and stopped floating. It just hovered there as the boy flew up to above it. They just hovered there for ten seconds, until the boy finally spoke.  
  
"This is not the time. They," the boy spoke, pointing towards Asuka and Shinji, "are not for you…yet. Do you understand?"  
  
Lillith nodded.  
  
"Leave now. You know how POed the big J gets when he has to wait." The boy said, smiling.  
  
Lillith nodded, and disappeared.  
  
"Big J? Could he mean Jesus?" Ritsuko asks.  
  
"J can mean anything. For all we know it could be John Wayne." Misato replies.  
  
"Still, with the flight, the mysterious powers, he could be a real angel!" Ritsuko suggests.  
  
"Quit poking around."  
  
The voice had come from nowhere, and yet everywhere. Standing, quite angrily, on the wall was the mysterious boy. His eyes were narrowed at Ritsuko and Misato.  
  
"You should not concern yourself in things that don't involve you." He stated.  
  
"Well, if you're a danger to us, it does involve us." Ritsuko says, standing up.  
  
"I believe my assistance in stopping the Third Impact shows my colors. I've been watching, helping you people since day one. I saw your mother kill the first Rei, I saw her commit suicide, I saw all the clones of Rei being created, I saw the Second Impact first hand, and I knew about the souls of Asuka's mother and Shinji's mother within the EVAs before anyone gave it a first or half thought. I've protected you people from harm since before you were born, and all you can do is be the stupid curious human beings that you are."  
  
"If you're not human, what are you?" Ritsuko growls.  
  
The boy walked over to Ritsuko, and quickly placed his hands on Ritsuko's head. Images, scenes, entire years flashed before Ritsuko's eyes. She saw death, rebirth, blood, life, and the torments of her own soul before she even knew what was happening. Ritsuko collapsed onto the ground, crying.  
  
"What did you do to her?!" Misato demanded.  
  
The boy turned and faced Misato. He asked, "What do you know about hell, Misato? Would you like to see it? Her's and mine?"  
  
Misato was bewildered, but understood the moment the boy touched his hands upon her head. Images from both Ritsuko's mind and the boy's mind flashed into Misato, who screamed from the mental tension placed on her. The boy finally let go of her, and she collapsed onto the ground as well, panting and crying.  
  
"What… What are you?" Ritsuko weakly asked.  
  
"I am truth. I am a messenger. Nothing more. Stop trying to understand things that don't concern you, Ritsuko. For your benefit, and for those children Misato claims to protect."  
  
The mysterious boy vanished in front of their eyes.  
  
To Be Continued… 


	6. Why Are You Here?

"Guess Shinji-kun can't hold his liquor." Misato says, pulling the boy out of the bar and into the car.  
  
"It's your fault. You gave him the fake ID so he could get the beer he drank." Asuka says, helping Misato with Shinji.  
  
With those three, the mysterious boy and Rei were accompanying this Shinji- sponsored night on the town. Rei wore a nice red dress she had bought recently. In the past, she wouldn't have really cared what she wore, but she had developed some type of fashion want ever since the mysterious boy had locked her soul onto that body. Rei was smirking as she watched Asuka and Misato load an unconscious Shinji into the back of the car.  
  
"It's the boy's fault, he was the one who produced it for me." Misato grunts.  
  
"Look, we could all sit here playing the blame game and trying to find out who produced what fake ID, or we could just calmly get Shinji back to your apartment where he can sleep and think of dancing Evangelions." The boy suggests.  
  
They all stared at him blankly.  
  
"You really are strange, you know that?" Asuka states.  
  
"Yes. It helps." The boy replies.  
  
"Helps what?" Rei asks.  
  
"Exactly." The boy responds.  
  
Shortly after everyone got in the car and drove back to the apartment building that Shinji, Misato, Asuka, and Rei lived in, Asuka angrily paid Rei the 100-yen she had bet that Shinji would try to sleep with her after he got drunk.  
  
"Well, one crisis ended. Another begins. You people are going to have some serious problems cleaning up after all your race has done in the past few days." The mysterious boy says.  
  
"We can handle it." Asuka smugly says.  
  
"It's a mystery how you people survived the ice age with that kind of self- righteous attitude…" the boy mumbles.  
  
"Speaking of mysteries," Rei says. "We still have yet to uncover one mystery: how long are you going to keep your identity secret from us?"  
  
The boy raises his head up and looks around. "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"  
  
"Excuse me?" Misato queries.  
  
"That question baffles religious figures even today, but I know the answer. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? As many as wanted. How long am I going to keep my origins from you? As long as I want. You will learn. Patience is also a weapon when used correctly." The boy explains.  
  
"Patience is an obstacle. I'm unbreakable to everything, including patience." Asuka states.  
  
"Said the Titanic to the iceberg." The boy says.  
  
"What?!" Asuka asks.  
  
The ride from then on was pretty much silent, and the mysterious boy left the group's company and went down the street. Asuka, hidden in the shadows, and walking quiet as a ghost, followed in pursuit. She was intent on finding out where this boy came from, where he lived, and where he was going. The boy walked and walked, and Asuka eventually began to think it was hopeless as the boy just walked from one edge of Tokyo-3 to another, back and forth until he finally stopped in a park.  
  
"You must be getting really tired, Asuka. I suggest you go home and sleep." The boy shouted out.  
  
Asuka nearly fainted. She ran out from the clearing in front of the boy. "HOW DID YOU KNOW I'VE BEEN FOLLOWING YOU?!"  
  
"You walk as loud as a marching band, and I can sense the rage and jealousy on the surface of your mind. You might as well put a sign on you that says, 'I am a ninny.'" The boy explains.  
  
"That's it! I'm sick and tired of you just pulling out these mysterious phrases of yours from thin air! I'm sick of you being all mysterious and not trusting us with who you are! You haven't been truly frank with us ever since we first met you, and it's about damned time you finally gave us some answers! I want you to tell me who you are!" Asuka demands.  
  
The boy stares intently at her for about twenty seconds, and he narrows his eyes at her and turns away.  
  
"Stupid kid." He mutters, but loud enough for Asuka to hear. "You don't know what you want. None of you do."  
  
Asuka finally exploded with rage. She ran at the boy, intending to tackle him, but when she reaches a distance of one foot from him, she feels as if she has just smashed into a brick wall, and was suddenly flung back twelve feet and onto the ground. The boy is then suddenly sitting right on top of her, holding one hand to her throat.  
  
"Do you have the slightest idea what my wildest imaginations could do to your body just by thinking about them?! You don't know terror, Asuka. You think you do, but you don't. You don't know who you are, you don't know what you want, you don't know why you're here, and you don't know where you're going! I can answer the question of who I am once you answer those four questions I put before you!" the boy shouts.  
  
And with that, he vanished into thin air.  
  
Rei stood in the blackness of everything, yet she seemed to be illuminated somehow. She knew this was some type of dream or vision, but she didn't understand what was truly happening around her. Whenever she shifted her view from one side to another, she saw different things. One was of Gendou Ikari opening the entry plug with his bare hands, another was of her detonating Unit 00, and the last was of seeing all the human beings be reverted to LCL in the Third Impact when it occurred in the dream SEELE had induced. Then, when she finally looked ahead of her, she saw the mysterious boy.  
  
"Why am I here?" she asked him.  
  
"You were never away. For the first time, your mind is quiet enough to hear me." He responded.  
  
"Why are you here?" she asked him.  
  
"We have always been here."  
  
Rei woke up.  
  
Asuka watched Shinji from just outside the door. She was beginning to feel tired, but wanted to get a look at Shinji sleeping on his bed before she slept.  
  
I wonder why I feel so happy seeing him like this. Maybe I'm just starting to like the little idiot. He's not that bad looking. And he really never did compliment himself when he was fighting the Angels. I wonder why I always gave him such a hard time. He was just trying to find some sense of self worth in that cute little head of his. Wait a second; did I just call it cute? Oh God. Oh sweet merciful God, no! I think I'm falling in love with him! Dear God, don't let it be so… she thought.  
  
Shinji suddenly lightly smiled in his sleep. Asuka smiled more, and then winced. God hates me. I AM falling in love with him!  
  
The next morning, Shinji got up, but was not like usual. Despite his hangover, he was extremely pleased. When Misato came out and went through her usual procedure of the morning of drinking and suddenly snapping into total focus, Shinji did not criticize, in fact, he laughed.  
  
"Man, that boy really did a number on you, Shinji." Misato points out.  
  
"I feel the best I've ever felt in my entire life! The kid's a miracle worker! Either that or I still have some alcohol in my blood from last night." Shinji suggests.  
  
"You remember everything from last night?"  
  
"Not everything. After the third glass, it gets fuzzy."  
  
"Then you don't remember singing "We are the Champions" with Asuka and Rei in the karaoke bar?"  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"Just kidding!"  
  
"Whew."  
  
"You passed out half-way through the song, the mysterious boy finished it for you."  
  
Shinji hung his head down.  
  
"It was fun! We should do it again sometime." Misato suggests.  
  
"No, the hangover's starting to get to me." Shinji replies.  
  
Asuka walks out from her room and sees Shinji. She holds back a blush and says, "Gotta go! Be back later!" Immediately afterwards she runs out the door, leaving a bewildered Shinji and Misato.  
  
Asuka stood outside the door and thought for a moment. "I got to ask him out on a date. It's the only way this'll work. If he's a complete and total idiot, I'll know I don't want to do this anymore. Okay, I'll just walk back in and ask him to dinner. Right now. This moment. Immediately. I won't put it off. Yep, walk in right now and ask. Uh huh, this is going to help. Yep, I'm walking in. Even though I'm just standing right here, I'm walking in, and I'm gonna ask him. I am so pathetic."  
  
Rei just stood inside of NERV HQ, watching the Reconstruction Team work on Unit 04. All she can think about is the dream she had before waking up in the middle of the night. She thinks about the clothes she's been buying, the redecorations she's been doing for her room. And then she thinks of the soul she has now. She collapses onto her knees, and she weeps.  
  
"Oh God… Why do I feel this way? Why do I have no feeling of self-worth? Why do I feel guilt? What's happening to me?! Is it this soul? This soul now making every pump of my blood in my heart count? Why am I not feeling the happiness I desire?"  
  
The emptiness around her had no answer to her questions. Rei held her head and screamed. After ten seconds of screaming, she felt a finger pressed against her lips, and she stopped screaming. She opened her eyes and saw the mysterious boy in civilian clothes in front of her. Rei didn't even realize that she had had tears coming down her face. The boy took one of the tears on the side of his index finger.  
  
"Girls with such pretty faces weren't meant to cry, Ayanami." He says.  
  
Rei jumped into his arms, still crying. She did not smile, they just held each other. Rei's tears flowed down onto the mysterious boy's white shirt, but the shirt absorbed and evaporated the tears as soon as they touched it.  
  
"I thought… I thought this soul was supposed to make me happy with my life, supposed to let me take control. All it's bringing me is sorrow and regret!" Rei shouts.  
  
"Regret? About what?"  
  
"I don't know! I just feel intense guilt. It's eating away at my heart, what's happening to me?! Make it stop!"  
  
"I can't."  
  
"You have to! If you can stick this soul on me, you can take it off!"  
  
"It would be like me asking Shinji to just pull his arm off with his other arm, I can't do it! Ayanami, I never said a soul is the best thing in the world! When someone has a soul, it means they're open to all emotions a human being can feel. Human beings don't just feel happiness; they have to deal with the sad parts, too. The regret and guilt you feel is for yourself."  
  
"What?"  
  
"You feel sorry for yourself after everything you did in the past. You killed many angels, and in a sense, their DNA is part of you because you were created by DNA from Ikari's mother and Lillith, who is the Zeroeth Angel."  
  
The mysterious boy flinched when he said Zeroeth Angel, but he continued. "You have Angel DNA within you, so you feel like you've killed a part of yourself, some type of heritage. You feel like you've been used, like you're some kind of puppet for someone else's game, and that's true. SEELE used you from day one for their own purposes. In fact, the only one who truly appreciated and loved you from day one was Ikari's father!"  
  
"But he used me too…"  
  
"No, that was a dream. Your soul was hanging onto you by a thin thread, and deep down, it thought Gendou Ikari was using you, so it created the part of the dream where Gendou was planning to use you to initiate Third Impact on his terms. Gendou loves you even to this day."  
  
"I'm a clone. Less than a clone, a freak. Why am I here?"  
  
Rei stopped embracing the boy and fell once again onto the floor. She looked down on the floor, and then up at the boy. Much to her surprise, he was smiling. He then grinned with his teeth showing.  
  
"Congratulations, Rei Ayanami! You've done it!" he exclaims.  
  
"What?" she whispers.  
  
"You've asked the question that proves you've fully joined with your soul, and that you've evolved from a state of being a clone to a full human being!"  
  
"What question?"  
  
"'Why am I here?' That question is basically the same question as 'What is the meaning of life?'! Every human being asks why he or she exists! If you were just a soulless clone, you might cry a little because you're being used, but you wouldn't ask that question because you would already know the answer to it! You've proven your worthiness, and don't worry about the whole angel thing. Do you think they're dead?"  
  
"Well, yes…"  
  
"You can't kill an angel unless they're human, Ayanami. They're back in heaven, thinking how much you people failed the tests they gave to you."  
  
"You mean…"  
  
"Yes, you have worth, you killed no one, and you look downright sexy in that red dress you wore yesterday."  
  
Rei smiled and jumped into the air. "Now come on, kid, I'm going to show you the way to this nice tanning salon I know…" the boy says, leading Rei out.  
  
Asuka gulped deeply. She had been trying all day to ask Shinji out for dinner, but every time she came close, she stuttered and stammered and asked for something else, instead. Finally, she built up the courage to walk out to Shinji in the kitchen, who was sitting down at the table reading a newspaper.  
  
"Hey, Shinji?" Asuka asks.  
  
"Hey, Asuka, did you read the paper? Reconstruction on the city's almost halfway done. They say the school will be open again in about a week." Shinji states.  
  
"That's great. Shinji, I'd like to… Um… Well, you see…"  
  
"Friday, the fifteenth, dinner at that club down on forty-ninth?" Shinji asks, raising his eyes from the paper and up at a baffled Asuka.  
  
"How did you-"  
  
"When someone stutters like you do for a simple question, they're obviously trying to ask you out on a date."  
  
"YOU KNEW THE WHOLE TIME!? WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SOMETHING!?"  
  
"It was funny watching you make yourself look like an idiot!"  
  
Asuka slapped Shinji in the face, a feeling Shinji was getting used to. Asuka turned tail and walked out the front door. Five seconds later, she put her head in the door and said, "Yeah, Friday night is good. Tell Misato." She then left again. Shinji smiled.  
  
To Be Continued… 


	7. Clues II

"Program Complete." The computer chirps.  
  
Ritsuko took a sip of her coffee and smiled. Nearly two weeks ago, she started a program to break all the codes that Gendou Ikari had placed in regarding certain files pertaining to the mysterious boy. She had been only to find a few clues to his identity, including a report from 2002, an attempted assassination on Gendou Ikari's life when NERV was officially released to the public, energy readings from the boy when he first appeared, and his speaking to Lillith that convinced her not to initiate Third Impact. Everything else had been left to the program, and now, Ritsuko had access. She activated the first file.  
  
Shinji pulled out the chair for Asuka as she sat down. She was wearing a sleeveless blue shirt with a zipper going down the center and a knee-low tight blue skirt. Shinji wore a tuxedo without a tie or extensions. Last Tuesday, Asuka had asked Shinji out on a date. She herself was as surprised as anyone else who had heard. Asuka had harbored an intense hatred towards Shinji, believing herself to be threatened by whom she called, "Wonder boy" for his ability to win against the Angels where Asuka had failed. Shinji had accepted because he wanted to improve upon his social life. Ever since the experience where he almost died from intense loss of blood and minor internal bleeding, Shinji had decided he wasn't going to stay secluded the rest of his life in his room listening to Pachelbel's Canon. He did have some feelings for Asuka; he knew that. He wanted to see if they were friendship emotions or if they were deeper than that. Shinji sat at the chair opposite of her.  
  
"So, what divine angel came down from heaven and told you to go out with a date with 'Wonder boy?'" Shinji asked.  
  
Asuka laughed. "None. I just... Felt like doing this. Ever since Kaji died, I felt this big emptiness in my heart. He was the only person I had truly loved, but something deep down just told me to ask you out. Maybe it was divine intervention after all."  
  
"Well, we were actually fighting angels, maybe this is their form of revenge." Shinji suggests.  
  
"Unlikely. They could've paired me up with Touji if they wanted to torture me. How is he, anyway?" Asuka says.  
  
"I checked with the Doctors, and they say he's back home on leave from the hospital. They've gotten him a very nice prosthetic leg, with cybernetics that'll respond to his mental command easily. I've even heard rumors they can probably get some fake skin for it." Shinji explains.  
  
"So when he and Hikari are doing it, she won't get freaked out by the big robot leg." Asuka suggests.  
  
Both laugh at her joke.  
  
"Seriously, though, do you think those two have a future together?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Hey, this is US going out on a date. Anything is possible." Asuka states.  
  
Their waiter then approaches them, but they recognize him immediately, even more so with the fake moustache he has on.  
  
The mysterious boy says, "Good evening, I'm... Uh... Joey... Joe Bob, your waiter for this evening."  
  
Asuka and Shinji narrowed their eyes at him as he sweatdropped.  
  
"Look, kid," Asuka starts.  
  
"You couldn't think of a better name than Joey Joe Bob?" Shinji asks.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Asuka asks.  
  
"To watch over you two, obviously. And the band leader for later tonight sort of got sick and I'm singing for him tonight." He explains.  
  
"YOU'RE GONNA SING?!" the two of them exclaim.  
  
"I rather think I have a very beautiful voice, thank you very much. Now, are you going to order or what?" he asks.  
  
The clip began in Gendou Ikari's office. Gendou was writing down certain documents on a piece of paper when he suddenly raised his head up and noticed the mysterious boy in front of him. Ritsuko raised an eyebrow at this.  
  
"Who are you?" Gendou asked.  
  
"No one in particular." He replied.  
  
"How did you get in here?" Gendou queried.  
  
"Through the wall over there. I just rearranged the particles in my body so they would all split myself apart so every single atom could go through the wall atoms and then rearranged them all in front of your desk." The boy explains.  
  
Gendou reached over to tap the security alert button, but the mysterious boy moved quicker, raising up a previously hidden flaming sword and smashed the blade down into the intercom buttons.  
  
"No need to call for room service, Ikari."  
  
Gendou hung his mouth open in surprise, and then he said, "Now I know you! When NERV was released to the public, you tried to kill me!"  
  
The mysterious boy smiled and explained, "I changed my mind. Your judgment day is a long time coming. What do we have here?"  
  
The boy pointed to the letter he had been writing that was sitting on the edge of his table. He reached over and picked it up. He read it quickly.  
  
"A letter to your son, requesting him to come see you and help you! Shame on you, Gendou. Using your own son as a puppet in a much deeper game of Instrumentality." The boy states.  
  
"What does it matter to you? Why did you try to kill me?" Gendou asks, obviously getting annoyed.  
  
"It matters for the future of this planet. Let me just say one thing, Ikari: Don't get your son involved in this. It'll damage him for a long time."  
  
"What, can you see the future?"  
  
"No, I've been to it. I've been to all things past, present, future, and beyond. If you bring in Shinji to your little Evangelion project, it will bring him immense psychological damage. And the death of Rei number 2." The boy says.  
  
"Go away, you madman!" Gendou shouts.  
  
"Very well, remember this warning I give you: I see a great hand reaching out of the stars, this hand is yours, Gendou Ikari. I see millions of people screaming your name. Unless you stray from the path that fate has dealt before you, that hand will come down, and the millions of victims from Third Impact will scream your name in hatred."  
  
And with that, the boy vanishes, and the clip ends.  
  
The mysterious boy was on the stage in the very crowded restaurant now, and a spotlight was on him. He held a guitar in his hand and he held the microphone in his other hand.  
  
"Tonight's a very special night for us here, we've opened up the dance floor to those who wish to dance while I'm singing here. This first song is about a good friend of mine, the person who saved the world from Third Impact, Shinji Ikari! Let's get a light down here for him!"  
  
The spotlight shined down on Shinji, who blushed and stood up, waving to all the applauding and cheering people. He sat down quickly as Asuka giggled.  
  
"This song here is from the 90s. It's taken me a little bit to translate it into Japanese and still keep the original beat, but it works now. Shinji, this one's for you."  
  
Immediately, the mysterious boy began to play Green Day's 'Basket Case.'  
  
"'Do you have the time to listen to me whine,'" he sang. "'About nothing and everything all at once?'"  
  
Everyone began applauding, but stopped when he sang again. "'I am one of those melodramatic fools. Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it!'"  
  
He paused again, still playing the guitar. "'Sometime I give myself the creeps.' That's you, Shinji."  
  
Shinji rolled his eyes. "'Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me.' Sound familiar, Shinji?"  
  
Shinji sighed and thought of all the times he had retreated into his own mind for self-worth. "'It all keeps adding up,'" and then the band began to play with him. "'I think I'm cracking up! Am I just paranoid, or am I just stoned?'"  
  
Shinji stood up and took Asuka's hand. "Come on, let's dance." He said.  
  
"Now? To this?" Asuka asks.  
  
"Yeah, it'll be fun, come on! Is the pilot of Unit 02 afraid of some dancing?" Shinji smirks.  
  
"I'll show YOU how to dance, baka-Shinji." She grins.  
  
The two of them ran to the dance floor and arrived just as the mysterious boy continued playing again. "'I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. She said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.'"  
  
Shinji blinked in confusion as he danced with Asuka, trying to understand how those lyrics had anything to do with him.  
  
"'I went to a whore, she said my life's a bore, so quit my whining cause it's bringing her down.'"  
  
Shinji blushed and his eyes went wide at those lyrics, definitely not knowing how the mysterious boy had figured that to be related to Shinji in some way. Asuka just laughed at it.  
  
"'Sometimes I give myself the creeps. Sometime my mind plays tricks on me. It all keeps adding up. I think I'm cracking up! Am I just paranoid, or am I stoned?'"  
  
Shinji definitely knew those lyrics had to do with him, except the stoned part. He wasn't exactly sure what the mysterious boy meant by that.  
  
"'Grasping to control, so I better hold on!'"  
  
Shinji thought that maybe the boy was now referring to his piloting of Unit 01 and all the times the EVA had gone berserk.  
  
"'Sometimes I give myself the creeps. Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me. It all keeps adding up, I think I'm cracking up! Am I just paranoid, am I just stoned?" the mysterious boy sang, holding the 'o' in stoned. The band continued to play the song for a little bit more, but then the song stopped with a single guitar note.  
  
"I've gone through fifteen clips besides that one with Commander Ikari, and each of those is a clip from an Angel attack that shows the mysterious boy nearby, smiling when the Angels do something that puts the mission in jeopardy. In fact, when we were dealing with Ramiel, the fifth Angel, he was actually seen flying towards it in a vain attempt to block the beam cannon from hitting it, but didn't get in fast enough and disappeared. The reason no one saw him any of these times was because he only appeared as a being of pure light, but then when put through an ultraviolet light scanner, we see him with the wings." Ritsuko reports to Misato.  
  
Misato stood cross-armed behind Ritsuko. She asked, "Are there any more files?"  
  
"Two more. One is a camera file from Kaji's murder, and the other is... An Angel listing? Why would Commander Ikari make an Angel listing classified?" Ritsuko ponders.  
  
"Forget that for a second, we have a video clip of Kaji being murdered?! Why didn't anyone tell me?!" Misato screams.  
  
"Kaji's murderer entered in a shaded area, the camera wasn't fitted with infrared, ultraviolet, or any other scanning technology except recording pictures. It didn't show the murderer." Ritsuko explained.  
  
Misato let out a sigh. "Show it."  
  
The clip shows Kaji standing with his back to the camera, and then the gun being raised in the shadows and shooting him. There was no sound with the video. After twenty seconds of the image only being Kaji lying dead on the floor, they saw the mysterious boy enter from the shadows. The black and white camera was seeing a lot more light than the actual boy, but they could still make out the boy. He knelt down to Kaji and put his hands over him, but then the camera became static.  
  
"That's all we have. You know, this kid generates a lot of power just by living. The energy he emits must be distinctive in something else besides similar Angel readings. We haven't seen anything else that matches up with it." Ritsuko states.  
  
"We've run out of options. We'll look at the Angel listing Ikari had. Maybe there's something else with it, like a sub-text for each Angel that explains their relation to this guy. After we look at it, we'll try to list all the logical possibilities this kid could be." Misato plans.  
  
"Hang on, the file's hidden pretty deep in the MAGI. Ikari must've really wanted this file kept secret. It'll take a few moments to process."  
  
"Where'd you learn that song?" Shinji asks.  
  
It was near after hours. A few janitors were sweeping up floors and Shinji, Asuka, and the mysterious boy were at a table, eating desert.  
  
"Which song? Basket Case, Kryptonite, Mrs. Robinson, The Best Things, Cruel Angel's Thesis..." the mysterious boy lists.  
  
"The one about me." Shinji replies.  
  
"Oh, Basket Case. I heard it while I was growing up, and it became second nature to me. I'm pretty sure Green Day had visions of you when they wrote it." The mysterious boy explains.  
  
"Either that or they were high…" a drunk Asuka suggests.  
  
"In any case, I have to start an encore for you guys. I think-"  
  
We'll look at the Angel listing Ikari had. Maybe there's a subtext for each Angel that explains their relation to this guy.  
  
The mysterious boy heard the words as they were spoken, and his pupils dilated. He suddenly jumped into the air and disappeared, screaming, "NOOOO!"  
  
The boy reappeared in front of a large metal door leading to the room where Misato and Ritsuko were about to look at the Angel listing. He stuck his arm into the door in an attempt to walk through it, but he hit an energy field that his hand passed through, and he pulled it out, leaving a stump as an arm.  
  
"A particle dispersion field! They really don't trust me!" the boy states.  
  
The mysterious boy's hand regenerated soon afterwards. He screamed, "Don't open that file! I demand you let me in this instant!"  
  
He looked and saw the doors still closed. "Desperate times call for desperate measures."  
  
He puts his arms in a DBZ-like pose, and fired a white energy beam from the center point between his hands into the field, blasting out the field and the door itself, knocking the metal slabs out of their structures and onto the ground, but he was too late. Ritsuko and Misato were standing, with their arms crossed, in front of the computer terminal. The Angel listing did not have Lillith as the 02 Angel, but the 00 Angel. Under the 02 Angel, it had the word "Tzadkiel" in it.  
  
"Care to explain yourself?" Misato asked.  
  
"Oh, I've figured it out already, Misato. I know who he is."  
  
The mysterious boy puts his hands into fists as his rage began to skyrocket.  
  
To Be Continued… 


	8. Who Are You?

Asuka angrily swallowed the sobriety pill as she was running down the halls of NERV. "It tastes horrible!" she exclaims.  
  
Shinji ran next to her, however he was already sober, learning his lesson when he first tried to drink alcohol when he brought all the girls on a night on the town. "Well, I'm sorry, but we have to sober you up quickly! The energy that they're detecting in the lower levels is like an Angel's! The AT field it's picking up is unlike anything they've ever seen before!" Shinji shouts.  
  
"Why'd they need us? Couldn't they have Misato take care of it?" Asuka asks.  
  
"Misato and Ritsuko were right next to the energy when they detected it!" Shinji explains.  
  
Finally, the two turned the last corner and saw several NERV security officers holding automatic rifles up at the door, but not moving any closer. Shinji and Asuka ran past them and into the large room. They stopped and gaped at the sight before them. Misato was curled up in a ball, crying on the floor and screaming, and the mysterious boy stood over Ritsuko, touching her forehead as she screamed in agony. Electronic equipment everywhere was exploding, and the ground was rumbling somewhat.  
  
"I thought I taught you about hell the last time you went poking around in things that didn't concern you. Apparently, I didn't teach you enough!" the boy shouts.  
  
"Give me a weapon!" Asuka shouted to the guards. One of them picked up another rifle and threw it to her. She grabbed it in the air and aimed it at the mysterious boy. She immediately shot half the clip at the boy, but each bullet stopped and ricocheted off of the AT field he was generating. It did, however, get his attention. He let go of Ritsuko, and she collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.  
  
The boy's eyes turned a bright blue, and a current of air seemed to come from him at Asuka, and when it reached three feet away from her, the ground exploded in front of her, smashing debris and chunks of the floor into her and into a wall.  
  
"Asuka!" Shinji exclaimed.  
  
Another piece of debris was moved telekinetically by the boy, who smashed it into Shinji and he fell back through the doorway as the boy made his way towards Asuka. Another guard ran over to Shinji and helped him up. He handed him a strange looking rifle.  
  
"It's a particle disseminator, latest tech from the labs. I've been authorized to give it to you to stop that thing." The guard says.  
  
Shinji nodded, and readied himself. He ran back in and aimed it at the mysterious boy. He was almost to Asuka, and Shinji shouted, "Move and your dead, kid!"  
  
The boy turned his head towards Shinji. "And I say I'm dead, and I move."  
  
He then turned his entire body towards Shinji. Shinji, in a fit of rage, opened fire, launching a beam of concentrated yellow energy at the boy. The boy, quite surprisingly, only raised a hand up to block it. However, as soon as it hit the boy's hand, it merely gathered around his hand, and then ricocheted away back at Shinji. He stopped firing and jumped to the side as the reflected beam hit a nearby wall, annihilating it.  
  
The boy turned around to Asuka again; preparing to touch his hand on her head and show her the things she had shown Misato and Ritsuko. However, a female voice shouted, "Stop it!"  
  
The boy turned around and saw Rei in the doorway, holding another rifle. The boy just stared at her, and then put his hand down. He walked over to Misato and touched her forehead. She suddenly stopped crying and fell asleep. He then walked over to Ritsuko and repeated the same thing with Misato, except Ritsuko was already asleep.  
  
"I've removed what I've done from their minds. They'll wake up feeling like a billion yen. I'm sorry for what I did. Tell your guards to stand down, and when Misato and Ritsuko come to, I'll explain everything. Who I am, how I can do what I do, and how I know all the things I know."  
  
Shinji, Asuka, Rei, Misato, Ritsuko, and the mysterious boy all stood in Misato's office. Everyone was around the mysterious boy as he leaned up against Misato's desk. The boy looked at them, and then began: "You know, you people have kept asking me ever since you met me, 'Who are you?' and 'What do you want?'. The truth is, the questions 'Who are you?' and 'What do you want?' are very dangerous questions. To ask someone who they are is not just a question of names, it's a question of their identity. Who are they to someone else, to the world, to themselves. It can be used against you in ways you could never imagine. And what do you want? Asking someone what they truly want can bring about change in people. It's a, 'be careful what you wish for' question.  
  
"My story begins in the year 2000. I was the son of two people part of an American research team sent to Antarctica that was investing possible DNA structures of human beings in the ice. Along with me was my girlfriend, Amelia. Then, one night, Second Impact fell on us.  
  
"We didn't comprehend what was truly happening until it was too late. The explosion killed everyone in the team, and only one of us were of faith to God, so instead of being placed in Heaven or Hell, well… Have any of you read Dante's Inferno?"  
  
Everyone shook his or her head. The mysterious boy continued: "There is a place in between heaven and hell. It is a place of grayness. Of neutrality. But that neutrality comes at a horrible expense. The apathy field it generates can reduce someone to tears the second they arrive. It sends out waves of pain and sadness into your very soul, ripping your sanity to shreds. It's a purgatory; a place for souls who have lived good lives, but did not embrace God when they were given the chance. They must stay there and choose, Heaven or Hell."  
  
"But that seems like a fairly obvious choice to make. You're saying you really died?" Shinji asks.  
  
"It's not as easy a choice as one may think. Someone may be so devoted to the beliefs they have that they'll embrace Satan, believing him to be what they want. Others crawl to him because they cannot take the pain from the Purgatory much more. I finally made my choice. I went to Heaven, and I learned the truth of Second Impact. SEELE was playing with humans in their own game of wanting evolution for us all! However, Heaven wanted to know if Earth was truly ready for evolution to a higher plane of existence. They chose seventeen Angels to go to earth, each one representing some element of earth or life itself to see if humans could overcome them. Adam and Lillith were already on Earth, preparing themselves for the inevitable. Adam was reduced to an embryonic state, which has been returned to Heaven. Lillith is not what you think she is."  
  
"I know. That list of Angels didn't have her classified as the Second Angel. Why?" Ritsuko asks.  
  
"Lillith was Adam's first wife, before Eve. However, Lillith was different. She didn't need the stinkin' apple to turn on God's wishes. After Adam and Lillith had children, and Eve was given to Adam, Lillith became a figure known for attacking rather small children and seducing men in their sleep. God then imprisoned Lillith, beneath the earth in what you call Central Dogma. It was there that humans discovered her. However, because of Lillith's crime of betrayal and her redemption recently, she was more like 00 Angel, having no part in the decision of your evolution, but necessary for it to occur. Also, ever wonder Rei's EVA was designed Unit 00?"  
  
"I thought it was because it was a prototype." Rei stated.  
  
"No. It was named Unit 00 because it was the first successful copy of the Angel 00. However, when they created the rest of the EVAs, to cover up for the entire Unit 00 thing, they started adding the designation up, giving Shinji Unit 01, Asuka Unit 02, etc."  
  
"Okay, so we know you're an actual Angel, unlike the ones we fought." Misato says.  
  
"No, no, no! Those were actual Angels, too! In the beginning, God had eighteen different forms to pick for what would become what you are today. He made the move of choosing the one in his own image, and might I say he made a great choice, and the other seventeen forms were brought back into Heaven, excluding the Adam and Lillith models."  
  
"Okay, there's still one more thing I don't understand, if Lillith isn't the Second Angel, who is the Second Angel? Who is Tzadkiel?" Ritsuko asks.  
  
The mysterious boy breathed deeply for about ten seconds, and then replied: "Each Angel represented something that either had to do with the earth or human life. For Lillith, it was the Black Moon. For Adam, it was the Red Earth. For Sachiel, it was Water. For Shamshel, it was Day. For Ramiel, it was Thunder. For Gaghiel, it was Fish. For Israfel, it was Art and music. For Sandalphon, it was Embryos. For Matariel, it was Rain. For Sahaquiel, it was Sky. For Ireul, it was Fear. For Leliel, it was Night. For Bardiel, better known as Unit 03, it was Parasites. For Zereul, it was Might. For Arael, it was Birds, bet you didn't figure that one out, Asuka. For Armisael, it was Womb. And for Tabris, better known as Kaoru Nagisa, God rest his soul, it was Free Will. And for Tzadkiel, the Second Angel, it is Divine Justice."  
  
"How come we never heard about this guy before?" Asuka asks.  
  
"Because they honest to God don't know anything about him. He only appears once in a while and doesn't destroy anything. He's still making the final decision about you people and whether or not you deserve judgment."  
  
"I still don't get it. So you're a real Angel, but that doesn't explain why you've helped us, why you're explaining this to us, why you've been so secretive, and just who are you?! Who is the Second Angel?!" Shinji exclaims.  
  
The mysterious boy walked right up an inch from Shinji's face and replies, "Who was there at Second Impact? Who's been watching over every one of you since day one? Who's the one who has been watching every single Angel attack, who was the one that snapped you all out of a dream created by SEELE? Who's the one standing in front of you, explaining every detail of your life to you rather thoroughly?!"  
  
Shinji gaped, as he suddenly understood. "YOU'RE the Second Angel!"  
  
The mysterious boy put his head down and began to laugh. Slowly, glowing white wings began to come out of his back and flow behind him as his clothes changed to a pearly white. He began to grow larger, and his arms melted into tentacles, three more forming from him. He put up his head at Shinji, his eyes now glowing white.  
  
"I am Tzadkiel, the Angel of Justice. Pleased to meet you, Shinji Ikari."  
  
And right after that, Tzadkiel reverted back to his earlier state. Everyone merely gaped and stared at him as Tzadkiel smiled.  
  
"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Misato asks.  
  
"Because of you, Misato! You still have a passion for killing divine beings ever since your father died. And fact is, if you knew what I was, you would be afraid of me! I consider you guys my friends, but if you knew I was the same creature as the ones you were fighting for a year… Well, it would put a halt on plans for another of Shinji Ikari sponsored Night on the Town. Also, I'm technically not allowed to have told you."  
  
"Oh come on, Tzadkiel, we're not afraid of you now, we trust you now!" Shinji says.  
  
"I beg your pardon?" Tzadkiel asks.  
  
"You've been helping us since day one. You've been behind the scenes, caring about us when nearly everyone else cared only about the mission." Rei says.  
  
"And now you've told us who you are and we know what you're capable of, but we'll take the risk of pissing you off because that's what friends do." Misato says.  
  
"Just don't try to teach us about hell ever again." Ritsuko says.  
  
"Agreed." Tzadkiel says, putting his hand out and shook it with Ritsuko's.  
  
"Now, if all that is over with, what're we all standing around for!? We're all here, there's no more Angels to handle, SEELE's finished, and Shinji and Asuka just got back from their date! I say we have a party!" Tzadkiel shouts.  
  
"You're definitely different from the other Angels." Misato says.  
  
"I'm the white sheep of the family. Hey, can we get a keg down here? And some nachos? And possibly a big screen TV with every episode of Babylon 5 known to man?" Tzadkiel asks into the speaker phone.  
  
To Be Continued… 


	9. Mana

Shinji picked up the ringing phone and put it to his ear. "Hello? Yes, this is Shinji."  
  
Shinji's smile faded immediately. "Oh. Hello, Mana. Yes, it's been a long time. Saw me on TV? Oh, you mean the assault on the SEELE base."  
  
Asuka walked into the room and Shinji gritted his teeth. "Yeah, I'll be there. Okay. Goodbye." Shinji slowly hung up the phone.  
  
"Who was that, wonder boy? You look spooked." Asuka says.  
  
"That was... Mana." Shinji replies.  
  
"The bimbo who hit on you last year? Wasn't she also part of some organization to make robots like EVAs?" Asuka asks.  
  
"Yes. I had Misato arrange for her a fake ID and sent her to a safe house in France. Since the Angels have been defeated, and that NERV is scheduled to disband at the beginning of next year, she thinks she should finally come back and we could be together..." Shinji explains.  
  
"THAT LITTLE TEMPTRESS THINKS SHE'S GONNA STEAL MY BOYFRIEND!? I'LL RIP HER FACE OFF!" Asuka shouts.  
  
"Asuka, we've been dating for three weeks now, you have to give me some time to think about this!"  
  
"Think about what?! You don't seriously think you still love her, do you?!"  
  
"Well..."  
  
"Oh God! You are the most annoying guy I've ever dated! Now Kaji, he wouldn't turn his back on me..."  
  
"He never dated you, and he slept with Misato."  
  
Asuka slapped Shinji, leaving a red handprint on the left side of his face.  
  
"Shut up, Shinji! You think you've got to choose? Then fine, choose quickly, because if you don't choose soon, that bimbo's head isn't going to be the only one on a platter!" she shouted.  
  
Asuka walked out the front door and slammed it behind her. Shinji stared at the door for a few moments, and then looked down at the phone.  
  
"I wish Kaji were here. He'd know what to do."  
  
Misato looked into the small kitchen inside NERV and looked inside the refrigerator, pulling out a beer and some instant curry. She turned around to see someone with their feet on a nearby table reading the newspaper.  
  
"Hey, Katsuragi, what do you got there?"  
  
Misato recognized the voice as Tzadkiel, the mysterious boy who had recently been identified as the Second Angel. He put down the paper and got up. What he had been asking about was the report in her arms.  
  
"I thought you were an Angel of Divine Justice. Shouldn't you be off judging someone?" Misato asks.  
  
"Oh, but I am!" he said, putting his feet off the table. "I'm judging the Eighteenth Angel, known as Mankind, for their right to evolve into a higher state of being! So, what's on that little piece of paper you have there?"  
  
"Considering there's no real way to hide this from someone like you, I'll tell you. It's a report stating that I have to go meet with the leaders of a Religious fanatics group who are threatening to invade and take over Japan unless their demands are met." Misato replied, opening the beer and putting the curry on the counter.  
  
"How many followers of this little group are there? Millions? Billions?"  
  
"Around three hundred."  
  
"And how is this somehow a threat to Japan, with an army AND the Evangelions at your command?"  
  
"Sometimes these kinds of small groups can take over larger ones. The United States, the country you're from, is an example."  
  
"Well, technically, I was only American when my name was John, and have since merged the soul of John with the Angel of Divine Justice, Tzadkiel. And remember, the Americans won their Revolutionary War because they had better support, and the British had to send back to Great Britain for military support, and the Americans won. However, it's not always the case. Ever hear of a small militant group known as the Klu Klux Klan? They were a group of religious fanatics in white sheets. They burned crosses, performed ritual killings of blacks. Back in the nineteen thirties, they stormed Washington D.C. in an attempt to takeover. They got their asses pummeled. You know why? They actually had to pay people to be part of their little organization of racist idiots who wore bad ghost costumes."  
  
"That was then, this is now. Who knows what they could have up their sleeve."  
  
Misato prepared the curry to be made. "By the way, about Kaji's murder, I wanted to ask you-"  
  
Tzadkiel was gone. Only the newspaper remained. "I really hate it when he does that."  
  
Asuka sent another blow into the punching bag. She wore a red sleeveless shirt and black sweatpants. She was sweating heavily, mainly from the fact that she'd been hitting and kicking the same punching bag for an hour. She jumped and kicked the bag once more, and fell back down. The door for the gym she was in opened, and Rei walked in. She pulled back for a second and said, "Oh! I'm sorry; I didn't know you were in here. I can come back if you want."  
  
Asuka leaned down onto her knees, panting. "No... No, it's all right. What are you doing here?"  
  
"I've been trying some gymnastics out. It's really relaxing, you should try it." Rei says.  
  
Asuka walks over to a bench and drinks from her water bottle. "Nah, I'm not lithe enough to try that. Taking out all my rage on this bag and pretending it's Ikari is enough."  
  
"Speaking of which," Rei said, putting her bag down on another part of the bench. "Ever since you started dating, you've been coming here more often."  
  
Asuka walked back over to the punching bag and started hitting it again. "Yeah, well dating baka-Shinji can do that to a person!"  
  
"I don't think Mana ever did that."  
  
"Leave that little bimbo out of this!"  
  
"Well, Shinji told me about how she was coming back tomorrow."  
  
"DOES NO ONE NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?!"  
  
"Well, I think there are two guys down in the fifth guard of NERV who don't know a thing about it..."  
  
Asuka stared blankly at her.  
  
"A joke. You know, funny ha ha?" Rei asks.  
  
"Shut up." Asuka says, punching the bag once more.  
  
"You should really try gymnastics, it beats mutilating that poor punching bag all day."  
  
"Oh, so Miss Vegetarian is now not just standing up for the rights of animals, but now for punching bags."  
  
"Not liking meat is a life style choice I've come to accept from my previous versions. It's healthy and morally better."  
  
"Morality and health can sometimes clash."  
  
"Like you and Shinji."  
  
"Leave Shinji out of this, Rei!"  
  
"But this is about Shinji. You're doing this because you're afraid you're going to lose him to Mana."  
  
"How. Can. I. Lose. To. That. Little. Bitch!" Asuka shouts, punching the bag at each word. She finally stopped and began to breathe fast again. Rei threw her the water bottle, which Asuka caught.  
  
"I can't lose to her... Can I?"  
  
"Well, that really wasn't the same me who was there when I first met her, I mostly have vague images of her, but you may have competition."  
  
"Damn it... If Shinji-baka chooses her over me..."  
  
"I'll be sure to give Misato the death notices."  
  
Misato drove out of the parking lot and back to her apartment. She was noticing that with the added position of running NERV, she had to stay at the place longer than she wanted to. She knew Shinji would be all right for cooking; she was more concerned about herself getting lack of sleep and food from the job.  
  
"Well, you won't have to worry about that once NERV shuts down, will you?"  
  
Misato nearly swerved off of the road when she heard Tzadkiel's voice again. She quickly got back in control and looked to her side, seeing the Angel in his seat.  
  
"Couldn't you give me a schedule of events for when you're going to SCARE ME HALF TO DEATH?!"  
  
"I thought I had scared you half to death enough when we first met. You put a bullet in my head, and I walked out of it with a rather large headache."  
  
"It's one thing to be scared in a dream, but being scared in real life can cause serious problems!"  
  
"Nonsense! Dreams are just a different state of consciousness, one of the many that I can enter. Excuse me for a moment."  
  
Tzadkiel put his hand out the window, and fired a white energy strand at a person and pulled the strand back. The man who had been hit by the strand fell to the ground, unconscious. Tzadkiel put the strand into a little ball, and showed it to Misato. The white ball was now beginning to show blackness in some areas.  
  
"Did you kill him!?"  
  
"No, just did my job: Divine Justice, like you wanted. Do you know what this is? This is that man's soul. Usually, souls come in a corporeal form, but since that man hasn't died yet, well, we'll have to settle with energy for now. Usually, souls are pure white with maybe a smidgen of black in an area or two. Do you know why this man has so many black spots?"  
  
Misato shook her head.  
  
"It's because this man has killed. By the looks of it, he's done it many times, and he's done it painfully and enjoyed every moment of doing it."  
  
Tzadkiel breathed on the soul, and it disappeared. "There, back into his horrible little body."  
  
"Why did you do that?"  
  
"To show you that. To show you that you don't have a blackness on your soul, despite what you may think."  
  
"Yes, but you must know that I-"  
  
Misato turned her head back to Tzadkiel, but he was gone again.  
  
"I really hate it when you do that!"  
  
"I know. It's why I enjoy doing it so much." His voice replied.  
  
Shinji sat on the bench, watching Mana's train come in. He stood up as it slowly came to a stop, and he looked both ways for where she would get off. He saw her to his left, and he walked over to her as she got off the train, not carrying any luggage and her brown hair moving about the wind.  
  
"Shinji! Listen, I have to tell you this really quickly-" she said.  
  
"No, wait. Mana, I've been thinking about you coming back here, and I have to tell you this: I've fallen in love with someone else." Shinji said.  
  
Mana just blinked for a few seconds. "Okay..."  
  
"I know you were hoping to see me again because of what we had before I sent you to the safe house, but we can't have it again. She's a great girl, and she'd frankly kill both you and me if I chose you."  
  
"Do you love her?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then go to her, you baka! Don't just stand around talking to me!"  
  
Shinji smiled and hugged her. "How come you're so perfect?"  
  
"Beats me, Shinji. Goodbye. I'll always remember you."  
  
"And I you."  
  
Shinji turned around and walked away. Mana got back on board the train and sat down next to the boy she was with.  
  
"Did you tell him?" he asked.  
  
"Didn't need to. Turns out he's seeing someone else."  
  
"The kid doesn't know what he's giving up."  
  
"Oh, I bet he knows, Andrew."  
  
The two embraced and kissed.  
  
Shinji walked back home slowly. He thought about whether he had made the right choice or not, and how his decision would affect Asuka.  
  
"She's gonna be practically begging you to sleep with her for choosing her." Tzadkiel says, appearing next to him.  
  
"And just where were you during all this? The last few weeks, every time I had some sort of emotional crisis you were always giving me pep talks." Shinji states.  
  
"I had business of my own to attend to. Judgment doesn't just give itself out, you know." He says.  
  
"Yeah. Anything like this ever happen to you?" Shinji asks.  
  
Tzadkiel put his arm around Shinji's shoulders and says, "Shinji, let me tell you about this girl named Amelia..."  
  
To Be Continued... 


	10. Welcome Home

"Come on Misato, we need to talk!" Tzadkiel says.  
  
Tzadkiel had just walked into Misato's office, facing the guards that had usually hung around her door. After he knocked them unconscious with a simple command to their minds, he had walked right in; walking in to see Misato's chair turned around. He walked up to the desk, reached over with his hand and turned the chair around. Misato was not in the chair.  
  
"Misato, I'm really not in the mood for games right now!" he shouted.  
  
"Neither am I."  
  
Tzadkiel didn't even see the electrical net that dropped from the ceiling onto him, it just hit him unexpectedly and he had collapsed onto the ground. The electricity flashed on immediately, sending over 4,000 watts into the Second Angel. It hurt for only a moment, but his arm suddenly fashioned into an energy tentacle, and he sliced through the net and lept out.  
  
"I don't appreciate almost being captured, Katsuragi. Especially by such primitive technology."  
  
"Deal with it, I wanted to get your attention, and it seemed the best way to get it." Misato replied, walking out from behind a hidden wall.  
  
"You have my attention. Now, what is it that you have to talk to me about that involves using such... Interesting techniques." Asked Tzadkiel, who referred to the net.  
  
Misato looked out the nearby window. "I look around me, and I see happy faces. Asuka and Shinji have been dating for months, Toji's asked that girl from his school out, Rei's even started to consider asking Shigeru out. I feel like I'm the only person in the world who's without someone to love!"  
  
"Sorry babe, but Angels aren't allowed to date ordinary humans. I know it's a shame, but people don't receive Divine Justice just anytime."  
  
"I'm not talking about you, you idiot!"  
  
Misato walked over to Tzadkiel and grabbed onto him by the collar. She was obviously enraged. "You're an Angel, right?"  
  
"Well, yes."  
  
"You talk to OTHER Angels, right?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"That means you talk to dead people, right?"  
  
"What are you getting at?"  
  
"I want to see Kaji. I want you to talk to him, I want you to bring him down here, I want him to see me."  
  
"But-"  
  
"No buts, JUST DO WHAT I SAY!"  
  
"Misato, I'd like to help you-"  
  
"THEN GET ME KAJI!"  
  
Tzadkiel shoved Misato away from him. "Misato, it's sort of hard to get in contact with an Angel when they're not an Angel!"  
  
"Oh, don't tell me he got sent to Hell!"  
  
"No, I mean how can I talk to a dead person when they're not dead?!"  
  
Misato blinked. "Excuse me?"  
  
"Kaji is not dead. I came here today to tell you that he is right outside, and he'd like to talk to you."  
  
"He's... Alive?" Misato asked, still not believing what Tzadkiel was telling her.  
  
"Yes, he still talks about you. In fact, Hey Kaji, you can come in now!"  
  
The door opened, and low and behold, Kaji walked in. He still had the stubble of a beard; he was smiling the same smile. He had practically the same looking clothes he had been wearing when anyone had last seen him alive. Misato gaped as her eyes went wide with surprise.  
  
"Well, you two love birds have a lot to talk about. I'll be off." Tzadkiel says, floating up through the ceiling.  
  
Kaji and Misato just stared at each other for about twenty seconds until finally Kaji held out his arms and said, "Give me a kiss."  
  
Misato promptly punched him in the jaw.  
  
In the place above the Earth, a place beyond the comprehension of mortal beings, Tzadkiel floated up. To most human beings the only term that could be used to describe it would be "Heaven."  
  
And inside this glorious place of good souls and Angels, there was a washroom. Kaoru Nagisa placed his hands over the large, gold, oval-shaped bowl and sighed. He then heard footsteps behind him, and he turned around. Tzadkiel was walking towards him, smiling.  
  
"Hey, Tabris man!" he said, holding his hand up.  
  
Kaoru returned the gesture, and made a high five with Tzadkiel. "Hey, Tzadkiel."  
  
"What are you doing here, dude? You never come to the washrooms." Tzadkiel asks, putting his hands over the bowl, and sighing as well.  
  
"Well, ever since I heard about them finding that Celestial spring on that planet called Cephiros, I had to try it. The stimuli are incredible! I've never felt these kinds of emissions before." Kaoru replied.  
  
"Yeah, you should come here more often. This is the place where someone can relax, feel total peace of mind and soul, it's great. Especially when dealing with those mortals, Tabris." Tzadkiel says.  
  
"How are they, anyway? I haven't really checked up much on them ever since Shinji killed me."  
  
"Ah, they're trying to date anyone they can find. I had to pull that "Angels can't date" line on Misato. Luckily, Kaji came by to save the day."  
  
"Now we just need to know if they're having sex on Misato's desk or killing each other."  
  
"Either way would be typical of them. Speaking of Angels and relationships, are the rumors I've been hearing about Tyrael true?"  
  
"About him dating a mortal girl? Yep."  
  
"No way!"  
  
"Yes way."  
  
"This is the same Tyrael we are talking about, all work and no play Tyrael?"  
  
"Yep. He's had a change of heart about relationships. I even heard some wedding bells coming soon."  
  
"Man, everybody's getting laid these days. Maybe I should try to appear in a vision in one of Maya's dreams…"  
  
Kaoru slapped his own head, and pulled out a note. "I almost forgot, this came for you from the Seraphims."  
  
Tzadkiel took the note and said, "Hey, maybe that promotion I've been trying for finally came through! 'The Archangel Tzadkiel.' I like the sound of it."  
  
Tzadkiel took out his flaming sword and sliced the opening of the envelope for the note off. He pulled out the note and slowly read it. Quickly, his smile faded into a gape.  
  
"Excuse me, Tabris. I have to take care of something."  
  
Tzadkiel stormed out of the washroom. Arael, the fifteenth Angel, flew into the washroom, passing a very peeved Tzadkiel.  
  
"What's his problem?" he asks.  
  
"I don't know. He should really try these Celestial Springs." Kaoru says, putting his hands over the bowl again.  
  
"Oh sweet, they came in!" Arael says, putting one of his wings over the bowl.  
  
Kaji slowly got up to face a fuming Misato. Her fists were clenched in anger, and her right eye was twitching as her teeth were gritting. Kaji winced at seeing her like this, and slowly backed up, putting his hands up.  
  
"Look, I know you're angry right now-" he said.  
  
"I shot you. I snuck into that place and SHOT you, and then I wept for days over what I had done! It took me a little bit to get over my grief, but I accepted it. How did you survive?! Why didn't you contact me, tell me you were alive?!" Misato demanded.  
  
"If I had, SEELE would've grabbed me and done the same thing you tried to do to me. And as for how I survived, an Angel found me." Kaji explained.  
  
"Tzadkiel was watching. He saw me attack you, and then, while you were dying, he healed your wounds, and brought you someplace safe until the coast was clear." Misato suggested.  
  
Kaji nodded, confirming what she had said.  
  
"You used me. Used my feelings for you to get information on SEELE and the Angels. You USED ME!" Misato shouted.  
  
"You used me." Kaji said, pointing at her.  
  
"Excuse me?" Misato asked.  
  
"You were doing exactly the same as I was doing to you. You used my resources and my love for you to get information on Lillith and the Angels that I had." Kaji replied.  
  
"I was trying to save humanity, I still don't know what your motives were, and I probably never will." Misato says.  
  
"Well, if it's any consolation, my intentions were good." Kaji says.  
  
"That I can believe. You may be a manipulative, lying, cheating, horrible person, but you've got a good soul."  
  
"I'm flattered."  
  
"I'm not. You still faked your own death."  
  
"After you shot me."  
  
"Point taken."  
  
"So what are we going to do now?"  
  
"We could probably just talk. Talk about what's happened, about old times. Just, talk."  
  
"I agree."  
  
Three minutes later, they were both naked and having sex on Misato's office couch.  
  
Kaji felt as if he weren't going to be able to breathe much longer. It was now several hours later, and now Asuka was hugging him with all her might, ever since Misato had brought him back to the apartment.  
  
"YOU'RE ALIVE! YOU'RE ALIVE! YOU'RE ALIVE!" Asuka shouted.  
  
"Please let go of me... Can't breathe..." Kaji gasps.  
  
Asuka slowly let him go. Shinji walked up. "How? How is it possible?" he asks.  
  
"Tzadkiel. Shortly after Kaji was shot, he healed him and brought him to a safe house." Misato explained.  
  
"But what about the body in the morgue?" Asuka asks.  
  
"Did you know that among Tzadkiel's many talents, including divine justice, singing, and story telling, he's also a skilled plastic surgeon? He can make any corpse just put into a grave look like anyone he wants!" Kaji replies.  
  
"Well, this is great! All in favor of celebrating?"  
  
Before anyone could say anything after that, the doorbell for the apartment rang. Misato rolled her eyes in disappointment, and walked over to the door. She opened it, and standing there, looking quite sad, was Tzadkiel.  
  
"Um, hi Misato. Could I come in?" he asks.  
  
"Sure, hey what's with the suitcases?" Misato queries.  
  
"Um, er... We need to talk." Tzadkiel says, passing her and placing the suitcases down. Everyone in the room puts their eyes on him. "Hey, is that beer? I haven't had beer since... Never!" he exclaims, running over and grabbing a can. Everyone continues to stare at him.  
  
"What are you doing here, trying to teach another little lesson about our lives?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Um, well, actually... I need a place to stay." He says.  
  
Misato was the only one who understood. She slowly began to giggle, and then broke into a hysterical laughter. "THEY KICKED YOU OUT!" she shouts.  
  
"NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Tzadkiel shouts. He pauses for a moment, and then says, "Well, yes."  
  
"Who kicked you out of what?" Rei asks.  
  
"Heaven. The Seraphs have decided that I have not been doing as good a job as I should 'judging' you people and delivering Divine Justice onto others. They kicked me out of Heaven!" he exclaims, drinking the beer.  
  
"Really? So you're not an Angel anymore, Tzadkiel?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Yeah, pretty much. After a long argument, I convinced them to let me keep SOME of my powers. I have limited flight, tactile psychic abilities, and I can set my synchronization ratio manually." He explains.  
  
"How is setting your synchronization ratio supposed to help you?" Misato asks.  
  
"That's the other thing I need to talk to you about: I need a job." He says.  
  
"Let me guess: Evangelion pilot, Tzadkiel?" Misato queries.  
  
"Well, my name isn't exactly Tzadkiel anymore, either. They've separated my soul from the Angel of Divine Justice. And I'm not really the American boy who died at Second Impact. I'm still working on a permanent name, but until the day I get put back in heaven, you can all call me 'Tenshi.'"  
  
"Oh yeah, 'Tenshi.' Thaaat's original." Asuka rolls her eyes.  
  
"Criticize all you want, it's the only thing I could come up with!" Tzadkiel, now known as Tenshi, exclaims.  
  
"So, you don't have your powers anymore?" Shinji asks, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Well, not the big-ass judgment ones, no." Tenshi sighs.  
  
Shinji punches Tenshi right in the face, sending him into the ground. "That's for being there all the time and not openly helping us!"  
  
Tenshi slowly begins to get up, but Shinji kicks him in the stomach. "That's for letting me nearly bleed to death."  
  
"You are SO dead, Ikari..." Tenshi squeals.  
  
Tenshi gets kicked again, this time in the shins. "That's for almost killing Misato, Asuka, and Ritsuko!"  
  
"Now this is a nice welcome home." Kaji states as Shinji continues to beat up Tenshi.  
  
To be Continued... 


	11. Where Are You Going?

"Who are you?"  
  
"Rei Ayanami."  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"I do not know."  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"I do not know."  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"I do not know."  
  
"You can not answer the first three questions. If you do not answer the final question, you will not leave."  
  
"But I do not know where I am going."  
  
"Yes, you do. All of us do."  
  
"Why are you doing this?"  
  
"I am doing nothing. I am merely a messenger. Where are you going?"  
  
"How should I know?"  
  
"Buried, deep into our own souls lies the answer to each of the questions that define us. We all know who we are, what we want, why we're here, and where we're going."  
  
"I haven't gotten much of a chance to look into my soul very much."  
  
"Do you believe in yourself?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then you should be able to answer the question."  
  
"I don't understand how the questions relate to one another."  
  
"Then you have not dived deep enough into your soul."  
  
"I told you-"  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"Asuka Langley."  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"To pilot the EVA."  
  
"That is a contradiction. Your mission is done with. The Angels' thesis has been written. The decision made."  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"To be accepted by others for what I am."  
  
"But you are. The others know you."  
  
"True, but I want more than just them."  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"Anywhere I have to."  
  
"Incorrect. I was not asking where you are going to accomplish what you want, I am asking where you are going."  
  
"Why the hell do you care so much?"  
  
"I don't. You do."  
  
"Why do I care so much?"  
  
"I do not know. Why do you care so much?"  
  
"I can't answer something I don't know!"  
  
"We all know where we are going."  
  
"And that's where you're wrong. Most of the people today are just wanderers who have nowhere to go or any idea where they are going."  
  
"Then nowhere is where they are going. Nowhere is somewhere."  
  
"Oh for God's sake-"  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"Shinji Ikari."  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"Because I was meant to be here."  
  
"Meant? By whom?"  
  
"I assume by whoever decided I should be a pilot."  
  
"You don't know? How can you be sure, then?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"I have what I want. Others accept me for who I am. I don't need to pilot EVA to get my own self-worth, anymore."  
  
"What if you didn't need it in the first place?"  
  
"I did."  
  
"No, you didn't."  
  
"Yes, I did. People only respected me when I piloted EVA. However, now that they know me, and I know I can take care of myself, I don't need to pilot EVA."  
  
"Then why do you continue to?"  
  
"Because I know they need me. They need me to protect them and their world."  
  
"From what? The Angels' thesis has been written, their decision made."  
  
"Who knows what else is out there. Just like those terrorists with the NIOs, the world still needs EVA."  
  
"It does not need EVA, the EVA needs the world."  
  
"How do you figure that?"  
  
"The souls within the EVAs have business still with the world. Until their mission is finished, they will never go to what is beyond."  
  
"My Mother stays in Unit 01 to protect me?"  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"The question makes perfect sense. Where are you going?"  
  
"I think I'm going to find my father."  
  
"That is illogical. The best tracking agents of the world have tried to hunt down your father, but no one can find him."  
  
"Maybe I can."  
  
"Why? Why do you wish to find your father?"  
  
"Because..."  
  
"You still need his approval, don't you?"  
  
"That is what ties me to this earth, really. Only once have I gotten real, honest praise from him. But once is not enough."  
  
"I hear one is the loneliest number."  
  
"Isn't that a song?"  
  
"Probably, I really don't care. Er, um, let's get back on topic. Why do you want your father's approval?"  
  
"Because he's my father, and he's the only person I can truly look to for the best praise. I am his own flesh and blood. To be disappointed by your own flesh and blood is the worst disappointment."  
  
"But you are your own. You are the beast that shouted 'I' to the heart of the world."  
  
"Okay, that's it, this little cryptic dream sequence of yours has gone far enough, Tenshi."  
  
  
  
Shinji woke up as he always had done. Tenshi had his hand on Shinji's forehead, using his tactile psychic ability. Tenshi winced as Shinji woke up, and quickly retracted his hand.  
  
"I was-... Um, er... I-" Tenshi stuttered.  
  
Shinji promptly punched him in the face. Tenshi had been sitting on a chair, so he fell back on it, sending his head against the nearby wall. Tenshi got back up and held his head in pain.  
  
"I told you," Shinji calmly said. "I don't want to deal with anymore of those cryptic mind messages. I dealt with enough fighting the Angels and during the whole Third Impact dream thing, and I don't want to deal with them anymore!"  
  
"Okay, okay! I just wanted to see if one of my particular powers still worked..."  
  
The door suddenly swung open, revealing Asuka and Rei with bloodshot eyes. They had been awakened as well from Tenshi's dream they had been placed in. Both looked pretty peeved.  
  
"Suddenly I have this feeling you guys are going to open up a whole can of whoopass on me. Guess that's my cue to exit!"  
  
Tenshi ran into the wall, but slammed hard into it instead of going through it.  
  
"Oh yeah, I can't do that anymore..."  
  
To Be Continued... 


	12. And to All, a Good night

"This one goes out to my friends in the front table here! Let's get a light down on them!"  
  
Tenshi was on the stage of the restaurant once again. It turned out that Tenshi retained his natural gift for singing even when he was returned to a human form. It was December of 2016, nearly a year after they had first met him. It was sort of a sad time for the group of Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Misato. Tomorrow was the scheduled day for the official destruction of NERV and the Evangelion, and they decided to honor the event by holding a party at the restaurant where Tenshi performed.  
  
The guitars and drums began to play to Matchbox 20's "Real World."  
  
"'Well I wonder what it's like to be a rainmaker. I wonder what it's like to know that I made the rain.'"  
  
"I can't believe it's been nearly two years since we began this whole thing. I mean, look how much we've all changed thanks to EVA." Rei states.  
  
"Ah, big deal, we've changed. Change happens whether we want it or not. Hell, we've managed to win over more emotional conflicts than Freud could ever hope for." Asuka says.  
  
"'I wonder what it's like to be a super hero.'" Tenshi sang.  
  
"Not all the changes have been for good, you know. My father is still in hiding, and I intend to find him." Shinji states.  
  
"We already know, Shinji. Seems to me like that guy was a big coward to run away when SEELE showed up." Asuka says.  
  
"I actually think it was the smartest thing to do. If I knew SEELE was going to put me in that drug-induced dream thing, I would've run as far away as I could." Misato said.  
  
"The fact remains, however, that he did not warn anyone else about SEELE coming. He did not warn me, and that especially makes me feel... uncomfortable." Rei says, then drinking some water from her glass.  
  
"Ah, you're worried that your pedophile lover wasn't being honest with ya?" Asuka says, grinning.  
  
Rei spit out her water at the table, and Shinji immediately got angry as well at Asuka's remark.  
  
"Ah, you two are big babies. I'm just joking." Asuka stated.  
  
"It's not always funny." Shinji replies.  
  
The group realized that Tenshi had stopped singing, and they immediately clapped like they had been listening.  
  
"Alright, everyone, we're going to take a short break here while I apply some special makeup for my next song." Tenshi said, getting out backstage.  
  
"Special makeup?" Rei asks.  
  
"Knowing him it'll probably be clown makeup." Asuka suggests.  
  
"Let's get back on the subject at hand, which is whether EVA has changed us." Misato says.  
  
"You're taking this like a political debate, Misato." Shinji states.  
  
"I'm only trying to keep us on the same conversation. Has EVA really changed us all?" Misato asks.  
  
"The EVAs didn't do anything, it was the people involved with it who changed us. Tenshi, for example, sealed my soul to this body and gave me total control over my actions." Rei says.  
  
"Tenshi's been helping us since day one. He's been watching us, protecting us, and trying to altogether do the right thing." Misato states.  
  
Asuka holds up her glass. "To Tenshi, the most annoying, egotistical, and downright stubborn former Angel we know."  
  
The others toasted with her, and then the lights in the restaurant shut off. A little bit of music began, starting off with some techno rythms, then continuing with a little guitar solo. All of a sudden, a white light shines down upon Tenshi, who's face has been painted. The face itself is painted white, and black lines have been made coming down through his eyes, and black lipstick has been placed on his lips and made lines going out from the side of his lips. Basically he's been painted up like the main characters in The Crow movies.  
  
The music is playing to that of Rob Zombie's "Dragula."  
  
"'Dead I am the one, exterminating son! Slipping through the trees, strangling the breeze!'"  
  
Tenshi grabbed the microphone and continued singing into it.  
  
"'Dead I am the sky, watching angels cry! As they slowly turn, conquering the worm!'"  
  
"'Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches and slam in the back of my Dragula!'"  
  
"That kid has serious problems." Shinji whispers.  
  
"You're one to talk, baka-Shinji..." Asuka smirks.  
  
"Yeah, but I have actual cause to be insane. That kid takes it naturally."  
  
"And how's that?"  
  
"Would I ever dress up like a mime from hell and sing something like that on stage?"  
  
"If I got you drunk enough."  
  
Shinji sighed.  
  
"'Dead I am the dog, hound of hell, you cry! Devil on your back, I can never die!'"  
  
"'Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches and slam in the back of my Dragula!'"  
  
"Remind me again why we hang out with him..." Rei says.  
  
"Because he's the only remaining force on this planet who can sing worth shit." Misato replies.  
  
"Well, it looks like he's finally finished up this one." Shinji says.  
  
The entire crowd gives him a standing ovation, as do Shinji and the gang. Tenshi smiles and bows, getting a towel from the stage crew and wiping off the makeup that he had put in.  
  
"Thank you very much! Thank you all so much! Now, this next little piece is something that the group that I so always give attention to, will have to pay attention to. You see, Shinji Ikari, I couldn't just let you walk out of here without getting embarrassed somehow, tonight." Tenshi says, smiling.  
  
The crowd notices that a large television screen, almost as large as the stage is coming down behind Tenshi.  
  
"And so, I've made a little compilation for our hero, Shinji Ikari. Who I know as the Lady's Man."  
  
The screen suddenly turns to an image of Asuka, who is pointing out at the camera. There is no sound, but Tenshi sings for it. What's he singing? The Offspring's 'Pretty Fly for a White Guy.'  
  
"'Unta Gleiven glouten gloven!'" he sings.  
  
And then there was a drum solo as the image turned to a brief view of Shinji gritting his teeth.  
  
A light shined down and showed three women standing on stage near Tenshi. The image switched to when Misato had bore down on Shinji when he had commented about her usual breakfast.  
  
"'Give it to me, baby!'" the girls sang over Misato's lip movements.  
  
"'Uh-huh! Uh-huh!'" Tenshi sang.  
  
The image switched to Misato and Shinji in Misato's car together.  
  
"'Give it to me, baby!'" the girls sang over Misato's lip movements.  
  
"'Uh-huh! Uh-huh!'" Tenshi sang.  
  
The image switched to Asuka meeting Shinji outside of the school.  
  
"'Give it to me, baby!'" the girls sang over Asuka's lip movements.  
  
"'Uh-huh! Uh-huh!'" Tenshi sang.  
  
The image switched to Rei and Shinji on an escalator in NERV. Tenshi sang over Shinji's lip movements.  
  
"'And all the girlies say I'm pretty fly, for a white guy!'"  
  
As the image showed Rei slapping Shinji, a guitar began playing.  
  
"'Uno, dos, tres! Quatro, sinco, sinco, seis!'"  
  
The image switched to Unit 01 walking down the streets of Tokyo-3, but then tripping and falling flat on it's face.  
  
"'Well you know it's kind of hard just to get along today, our subject isn't cool but he fakes it anyway!'"  
  
"'He may not have a clue and, he may not have style, but everything he lacks, well he makes up in denial!'"  
  
The image switches to when Shinji accidentally tripped in Rei's apartment and sent all her underwear flying and he ended up landing on her.  
  
"'So don't deface, and play us straight! You know he really doesn't get it anyway!'"  
  
"I'm going to kill him." Asuka says.  
  
"I know, me too." Shinji says.  
  
"I mean YOU, Ikari, not Tenshi." Asuka states.  
  
"Eep..." Shinji whispers.  
  
"'Hey! Hey! Do that brand new thing!'"  
  
The group continued to watch Tenshi sing as the clips ran by of embarrassing situations for Shinji as Tenshi continued singing, obviously having a fun time.  
  
"Why does he hate me so much?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Why does toast land butter side down? No one knows, Shinji. Maybe it was because he invested so much time into you, but yet you still have problems coping with reality." Misato suggests.  
  
"Reality ain't so bad when I've got Asuka." Shinji replies.  
  
"Got that right, baka." Asuka grins.  
  
"But still... I think I might know what I'm missing." Shinji says.  
  
"So, this is it. You're leaving." Misato says.  
  
Shinji was still packing his last suitcase. Misato and Asuka stood in his room.  
  
"Yep." Shinji replies.  
  
"But why? Doesn't our relationship mean anything to you?" Asuka asks.  
  
"It means the world, Asuka. But my Father's still out there, and I've got to find him." Shinji says, putting his last shirt in the suitcase and closing it.  
  
"We've had agents searching for him everywhere. Why do you think you'll have more luck?" Misato asks.  
  
"I may have been distant from him last year, but I do know of some places he would go that people wouldn't think of looking. By the way, how's 'NERV?'" Shinji asks.  
  
Misato smiled. "As far as the public knows, destroyed. However, it has come to the attention of the UN that we may need EVA again. And because of that, they have approved funding for the secret organization called SYNAPSE. Tenshi, Asuka, and Rei will continue to work for it until such time when we don't think we need the Evangelions any more."  
  
Shinji smiled as well and said, "Keep Unit 01 in mothballs until I come back."  
  
Shinji lifted up all his suitcases, but Tenshi walked in and helped him carry them out. After he had left in Kaji's car for the train station, the group stood in the doorway of Misato's apartment.  
  
"Do you think we'll ever see him again?" Rei asks.  
  
"Of course! We're the kid's only stabilizing force. He's got to come back to us." Tenshi states.  
  
"Yeah, but he never truly felt at home here." Misato says gloomily.  
  
"There's an old Angel saying that I think applies in this situation. 'Only Nixon can go to China.'" Tenshi says.  
  
The others stared at him.  
  
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Asuka asks.  
  
"Forget it, my talents are wasted on you people." Tenshi says, walking back inside.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	13. Instrumentality Reborn

Shinji breathed deeply as he dragged his way through the countryside. His head was bleeding in two spots, and he could still feel the pain in his legs. It was the pain that kept him from walking back towards SYNAPSE, formerly known as NERV. The information he had was priceless if his friends and allies were to prevent another attempted Third Impact.  
  
All of a sudden, memories returned to him. He remembered receiving a signaling device, something that would alert SYNAPSE if he needed help or if he had found Gendou Ikari, his father who he had been searching for for the past six months. He pulled out the small black box out of his jacket pocket. There were two buttons on it, one for saying if he had found Gendou, and the other if he needed assistance. He took a deep breath, and pressed both buttons down, hard.  
  
And then he fell unconscious.  
  
"'You're a God, and I am not, and I just thought that you would know!'"  
  
The audience in the restaurant stood up, clapping like mad for Tenshi's singing. He took a bow.  
  
"Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you! We're going to take a little break here. You get yourselves a drink, some food, anything! I recommend the fried chicken, but that's just me." Tenshi let go of the microphone and walked down off the stage over to the table where Misato and Asuka were sitting.  
  
"You seem a little tired tonight." Misato states.  
  
Tenshi yawns. "I didn't get much sleep last night."  
  
Asuka raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And who were you doing the Midnight Olympics with, pray tell?"  
  
"Maya. No, I'm just kidding, I didn't sleep with anybody. It's just ever since Rei disappeared on us, I've been having trouble sleeping." Tenshi replies.  
  
"That might also explain why your synch ratios have been slightly lower than usual." Misato says.  
  
"Ah, I wouldn't be too worried about Ayanami. Wonder Girl's a survivor." Asuka says.  
  
"No, 'Wonder Girl' is a clone that can no longer keep cloning herself should she die. So, I think-"  
  
A ringing from Misato's pocket interrupted Tenshi. Misato pulled out the ringing cell phone and pressed the talk button.  
  
"General Katsuragi. What? We're on our way."  
  
Misato hung up and turned to the two. "The computers are picking up an emergency signal from Shinji!"  
  
Asuka immediately started to get up. Tenshi turned around and shouted to the band on stage, "Lee, you've got to take over for me for tonight. Possibly for the rest of the week! Something's come up!"  
  
Tenshi got out of his chair along with Misato and Asuka.  
  
The helicopter swooped over the countryside with Asuka and Tenshi in it. They had sunglasses on, and Tenshi looked out one open side of the helicopter with binoculars. Finally looking in a direction towards the right, he saw him.  
  
"I've got him! He's lying on the ground over there!" he exclaimed.  
  
The pilot nodded and went in the direction he pointed him to. The helicopter swooped over the unconscious Shinji, and landed right next to him. Tenshi and Asuka got out with the medical team that was with them and examined Shinji. The team looked him over.  
  
"He's alive, but not much longer if we don't get him back to SYNAPSE." One of the Doctors said.  
  
"Get him into the chopper and bring us back." Asuka commanded.  
  
The medical staff nodded and complied with the command.  
  
Three hours later, Tenshi, Asuka, and Misato stood or sat in the waiting room of the hospital. They all looked impatient.  
  
"Damn it, what are they doing in there?!" Asuka demanded.  
  
"They're healing your boyfriend. I recommend you at least be a little more patient." Tenshi replies.  
  
"Oh, come on, Tenshi. You're just as impatient as the rest of us about this." Misato states.  
  
Tenshi sighed. "Alright, I admit I am a bit curious as to what is happening in there."  
  
Asuka mockingly patted him on the back. "See? It does not so hard admit you have emotions, now is it?"  
  
Tenshi glared at her. He was about to make a comeback, but the doors to the emergency room opened and a Doctor came out. He sighed and said, "Well, we've done everything we can. He's in a coma now. It could be hours, days, months, or even years before he wakes up."  
  
"We don't have years. In fact, we may not have hours. His distress call said he had found Gendou, and we must find him, as well." Misato states.  
  
"Well, there's nothing more we can do except pray." The Doctor said, walking off.  
  
"I can try something." Tenshi says.  
  
"What? What can you try?" Misato asks.  
  
"A couple months ago, I tested to see if my ability to enter a mind had been taken away from me when I had been kicked out of Heaven. It had not. It's a long shot, but I could go into Shinji's mind and get from him the answers we seek." Tenshi says.  
  
"That's brilliant! How did we ever survive before you came along?" Misato asks.  
  
"My guess is you had divine intervention." Tenshi suggests, standing up.  
  
The three walked down into the Emergency Room, where Shinji Ikari was laying. Most of his wounds had been treated, and an oxygen mask was over his mouth. Tenshi rolled up his sleeves and cracked his knuckles. He spread his fingers apart and placed his hands on Shinji's face. He smiled when he next spoke.  
  
"My mind to your mind. Your thoughts to my thoughts..."  
  
Within his own mind, Shinji Ikari sat in a train car. The entire area seemed to be hazed over with a yellow color. Shinji merely ran his thoughts in circles several times before he finally looked up to see Tenshi staring back at him.  
  
For what seemed like an eternity, neither spoke to one another. They merely stared at one another, for what appeared to them as millions of years, their eyes never moving except to blink.  
  
Finally, Tenshi scowled at Shinji and said, "Doesn't this train ever go anywhere?!"  
  
Shinji blinked, unknowing what to say.  
  
"I mean, of all the weird, twisted mind messages me and the other angels have subjected to you, this one was the weirdest. I think Ramiel gave you this one. I mean, what the hell is this train car doing? Where are we going? Where did we come from? It's one screwed up little reality he concocted. That was always Ramiel's problem: he always thought three- dimensionally."  
  
All of a sudden, Shinji burst out laughing. Tenshi stared at him with a blank expression.  
  
"Tenshi, you are too much." Shinji sighed.  
  
"Probably. So, how've you been doing?" Tenshi asked.  
  
"Well, I started looking for Gendou in a couple of places I knew, but none of them matched up. I got a lead on him about a month ago, and managed to track him down. I've acquired information on what he's been doing ever since he first disappeared. However, a group of would-be assassins beat me half to death. They probably think I'm dead right now." Shinji explains.  
  
"Did Gendou send them?" Tenshi asks.  
  
"No. The people I found out about sent them. There's a new SEELE. Apparently, they've been funding Gendou to find a way to create Third Impact."  
  
"What about Rei? She's been missing for a little bit. Do you have any idea if she's involved?"  
  
"Yes, she is. My father took her out of SYNAPSE through a secret room. Down in Central Dogma, where Lillith used to reside, there's a hidden chamber that Gendou's been using to get in and out of SYNAPSE to collect supplies."  
  
"Thank you, Shinji. I'm going to leave now and inform the others."  
  
Tenshi stood up.  
  
"Oh, Ikari?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I'm sure you can think up better fantasies than a fricking train, okay? Maybe a threesome between you, Asuka, and Misato."  
  
Shinji gaped at Tenshi, who smiled and disappeared from the train. Shinji blinked and then thought for a moment.  
  
"Well, the idea IS sort of appealing..."  
  
Tenshi opened his eyes and let go of Shinji. He fell to the side a little, but caught himself. He breathed deeply as he realized he had used up a lot of strength doing that. He turned to the others.  
  
"Rei was kidnapped by Gendou. There's a hidden chamber in Central Dogma, where Lillith used to be. There's a lot more, please help me up."  
  
The doors into Central Dogma opened slowly, having not been moved for so long. The place was dark, and the air was cold, stale, and smelled like blood. Misato and Ritsuko strained their eyes trying to see what was inside, but failed. Ritsuko took out the small control panel in her hands and typed in some commands. All the lights in the chamber flickered, but then turned on. The two looked around the lit room, seeing the makeshift patch on the hole that was generated by one of SEELE's EVA series when it attempted to free Lillith and create Third Impact. They looked around, and saw one part of the wall that seemed to be a panel on it. Ritsuko accessed the control panel, trying to gain entry into the locking mechanisms throughout Central Dogma. She managed to access it, and the panel slid open, revealing an array of technological equipment scattered throughout it. Also appeared to be a dark tunnel going up into a sewer system above SYNAPSE. Misato pulled out her cell phone and dialed the main control room.  
  
"This is the General. We have a more far more interesting problem than I thought." She said.  
  
Tenshi stood on the spot where Misato and Shinji used to go to overlook Tokyo-3. However, his mission was not to look at the city, but to look at the sky. He knew that there was still one unfinished matter to be taken care of if a new SEELE had indeed been formed that had another goal of Third Impact. He raised both of his arms up at the sky and began to concentrate. His mental vision took him up into the atmosphere, and then past it, and up to the encircling moon. There was one object in orbit around it he required.  
  
The Lance of Longevus.  
  
He focused his mental powers and pulling the lance down and compressing it's form at the same time. His mind was beginning to strain as he pulled at the Lance, trying to get it back down to Earth. It was beginning to move, but Tenshi was in immense pain. His eyes felt like they were on fire and he was sweating heavily. He felt as if his very mind was going to burst, but he knew he had to bring the Lance back down and shrink it down to a reasonable size, and he was accomplishing that. The power needed to pull it diminished, as it got closer to the earth, falling quickly through Earth's atmosphere as it approached his position. Still, the pain remained as it finally dropped in front of him, now only two meters long. Tenshi collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily and with a giant headache. He got up and picked up the Lance.  
  
"I hate this stupid thing."  
  
"This seems to be some sort of jamming device." Ritsuko states, examining one of the large electronic boxes in the room.  
  
"Jamming devices, sensor blocks, lockout codes. This is intense stuff here." Misato says.  
  
"You know, when all of this is over, I'm going to retire to Cambridge University and raise Begonias." Ritsuko states.  
  
"Lovely flowers, Begonias!"  
  
The two turned to see Tenshi walking towards them with the Lance in his hands.  
  
"Tenshi, what exactly is all of this equipment for?" Misato asks.  
  
"Don't bother trying to understand. Mainly, it's a link for Gendou to send Rei or himself into SYNAPSE without anyone knowing." Tenshi explains, pulling the lance out from behind him.  
  
"And I don't want him here just yet!" He shouted, and immediately shoves the lance through one of the boxes.  
  
Misato and Ritsuko gaped at him as he began slamming the lance onto the equipment like a baseball bat and shoving it through things, destroying all of the sophisticated equipment. He began delivering blows to one particular console, and finally after three straight hits to it, the Lance snapped in half. Tenshi looked at the stick that had been the handle for the Lance.  
  
"Weapons, always useless in the end." He said as he threw the stick to the side.  
  
Both Ritsuko and Misato were still staring and gaping at him. He turned to them and said, "You two look hungry. Let's have lunch."  
  
Shinji's eyes fluttered open, expecting to see the ceiling that was not so unfamiliar to him anymore. However, what he instead saw was the face of the light blue-haired, red-eyed, clone of his mother named Rei Ayanami. For a moment, he thought the girl had been watching over him, waiting for him to awaken from the sleep he had been through. He began to open his mouth to ask for some water, but then Rei's face came down at him, and much to his surprise, her mouth locked around his, kissing him deeply. To say he was surprised would've been an understatement, but then he felt something seep from her lips into his, and he suddenly felt tired and woozy once again, falling back into a deep sleep.  
  
Rei pulled Shinji's unconscious body off of the bed and onto a cart, quickly pushing the cart out of the hospital room.  
  
Tenshi leaned his head against his fist, staring at a cup of tea. Misato walked over to him and asked, "What are you doing?"  
  
"Concentrating!" he exclaimed.  
  
Misato rolled her eyes and sat down at the table with him.  
  
"That thing you used to smash up the equipment in the hidden room... Was that the Lance of Longevus?" she asks.  
  
"Yes." Tenshi replied, yawning from exhaustion.  
  
"So... How did you get it from orbit?" Misato asked.  
  
"My telekinetic abilities are relatively intact. I pulled it back to Earth and shrunk it down to a reasonable size." Tenshi explained.  
  
"And how did you manage to break an object of holy power just by slamming it into a couple of boxes?" Misato inquired.  
  
Tenshi smiled. "The Lance of Longevus, even being a holy object, is just a stick with a pointy end. It's not the Lance itself; it's the power that imbues it. Since you people aren't going to need the thing for another few millions years or so, Heaven has taken the power of the Lance away from it, leaving it but a metal pole. When you people need the thing again, it'll be recreated."  
  
"You seem tired. Maybe you should get some rest." Misato suggests.  
  
"Well, entering a person's mind and shrinking a big object down to a reasonable size and pulling it from orbit sort of takes a lot out of a person." Tenshi replies.  
  
A beeping sound came from Misato's pocket. She reached into it and pulled her cell phone to her ear and said, "General Katsuragi here."  
  
Misato's eyes got wider when she heard the news. "I'm on my way."  
  
She turned off the phone and put it back into her pocket, standing up.  
  
"Rei was just caught within the HQ trying to cart Shinji out through Central Dogma. And Shinji's awake."  
  
"Well?" Ritsuko asked.  
  
"Well what?" Tenshi asked in return.  
  
"Aren't you going to scan her mind, try to find out what happened?" Ritsuko inquired.  
  
Tenshi yawned and replied, "I'm tired, Ritsuko. It's been a long day and I need sleep. I'll scan her in the morning when I feel better."  
  
Tenshi walked away from the hospital room. Shinji, in a wheelchair, asked, "Since when did Tenshi seem to get so much executive power? Misato, shouldn't you be able to order him to do it?"  
  
"I'm not running the same policies as your father did, Shinji. The kid needs rest, and I'm letting him have it. Until he directly questions my orders, there's nothing I can do to him." Misato explains.  
  
It is now 3:00 AM, Tokyo-3 standard time. Rei Ayanami's closed eyes are shifting left and right, and suddenly they open up. Rei's eyes must adjust to the darkness, but they accomplish that with ease. She attempts to stand up to look around, but she realizes she cannot. She looks down at herself to find herself in several restraints keeping her attached to a bed in the hospital.  
  
"Damn it, what have I done now?" She asks to particularly no one.  
  
Now it is 8:00 AM Tokyo-3 standard time. Rei Ayanami's eyes are shifted at an angle, indicating extreme annoyance and anger. Two SYNAPSE Soldiers held automatic weapons trained on her at all times, and Ritsuko quickly walked into the room.  
  
"I demand to be released from these-"  
  
Ritsuko nodded at the guards, and they took hold of the bed and began quickly wheeling it down the hall, and then to an elevator. They walked into the elevator and went down two floors. When it stopped again, they pushed the cart down another hall and into an enclosed cell at the end of the hall. They put the bed in the cell and then quickly undid the restraints. They then ran out of the cell and aimed their guns at her again. Rei pushed the restraints away from her and got up, stretching her arms and legs as she got out of the bed and faced the guards. Now accompanying the guards were Tenshi, Misato, Shinji, Asuka, and Ritsuko.  
  
"What the hell is going on?" Rei asks.  
  
"You tell us, wonder girl." Asuka commanded.  
  
"What?" Rei asks in reply, confused.  
  
"All I know was that you were kidnapped by Gendou. Was I wrong about that? Were you really working with him the whole time?" Shinji asks, still sitting in his wheelchair.  
  
"The last thing I remember is walking out of my home in the apartment building and then something coming over my mouth. After that I don't remember a thing." Rei said.  
  
"Tenshi, are you strong enough to scan her now?" Misato inquired.  
  
"I should be. Sleep is what I needed." Tenshi replies.  
  
Tenshi walks into the cell and walks in front of Rei.  
  
"I'm going to scan your mind to see if I can uncover some sense behind this, alright, Ayanami?" Tenshi asks.  
  
Rei nodded, and closed her eyes. Tenshi rolled the sleeves on his shirt back and placed his hands on Rei's face. He closed his eyes and began to focus. His hands seemed to glow a little, and Tenshi's head moved from side to side sometimes, like he was moving. He then slowly let go of her head and fell back a little, but he caught his balance.  
  
"Interesting." He stated.  
  
"What?" Ritsuko asks.  
  
"She's telling the truth. However, what she doesn't know is that after she was kidnapped, Gendou Ikari planted some type of device in her mind. It's not very sophisticated; it just suppresses the memory sectors of the brain and plants an alternate personality over the current one. That personality was completely obedient to him and him alone. It seems to have gone into remission for the moment. Ritsuko, you can remove the device through a simple surgical technique." Tenshi explains.  
  
"Does it tell where Commander Ikari is?" Misato asks.  
  
"Yes. I have found his location. Quite an interesting place he chose." Tenshi replies.  
  
"Why? Where is it?" Asuka asks.  
  
Gendou Ikari looked at the monitor screens, all showing DNA samples from Angels and from the late Yui Ikari. Gendou typed furiously into the comports, each time the results showed the DNA samples splitting apart. Gendou growled and slammed his fist into the desk.  
  
"Temper, temper, dear Ikari."  
  
Gendou leapt from his chair, aiming a gun at Tenshi, who stood in the doorway, leaning against it and smiling. Gendou put down the gun.  
  
"I was wondering when you'd find this place." Gendou said, sitting down in his chair again.  
  
"It wasn't what I had expected. I didn't even know there were catacombs directly underneath your dead wife's grave." Tenshi said. "It's time to come home, Ikari."  
  
"My dear boy, there's more to this than you understand." Gendou stated.  
  
"And what do you mean by that?" Tenshi inquired.  
  
"Tenshi, I think you should take a look at this!" a voice cried out from the other end of the underground catacombs.  
  
Tenshi calmly walked out and walked back over to Shinji and Rei, who were with an entire assault battalion from SYNAPSE. They were all looking in shock at something, but Tenshi couldn't see it until he was right next to them. He turned his head to what they were looking at, and he gasped in shock and surprise.  
  
It was Lillith.  
  
Tenshi growled and ran back to Gendou, who was still in the chair, looking over at data charts.  
  
"You son of a bitch!" he shouted.  
  
Shinji and Rei followed soon after, with Shinji scowling at his father.  
  
"How did you do it? How the hell is that thing here?!" Tenshi demanded.  
  
"Through Rei. I cloned Lillith using the DNA from her that was stored in Rei. You see, despite what you may think, I am not your enemy." Gendou says, facing them.  
  
"Then you'd better have one damn good explanation before I blow you and that clone straight to hell!" Tenshi exclaimed.  
  
"SEELE is and always has been alive." Gendou stated.  
  
The three were all taken aback.  
  
"What?" Rei said.  
  
"Must I repeat myself? The organization known as SEELE still exists. They've been working secretly underground ever since their first defeat by you all. SEELE didn't just come back into existence recently; they've been working behind the scenes since over a year ago. They've designed a new group of Evangelions with dummy plugs designed to initiate Third Impact. They forced me to clone Lillith for that purpose. However, Third Impact isn't and never has been my goal." He explains.  
  
"Then what is? Why all the secrecy? Why have you been doing this?!" Shinji demanded.  
  
"FOR YOUR MOTHER!" Gendou shouted back at him.  
  
Shinji was tired of looking surprised, so he merely raised an eyebrow at his father.  
  
"I don't care about the survival or evolution of the human race, I care about Yui Ikari. I want my family back. You alone weren't enough for me, Shinji. I want my entire family back the way it was." He explains.  
  
"You idiot!" Tenshi exclaimed at Gendou.  
  
"What do you mean?" Gendou asks.  
  
"If you wanted to meet your wife, all you had to do was tell me! I may not be an Angel anymore, but I still do have connections up there. I can arrange a meeting easily!" Tenshi explains.  
  
Gendou blinked. "Oh. Didn't know that." He says.  
  
Tenshi rolls his eyes. "Obviously."  
  
No sooner than that had Asuka pulled out her cell phone and dialed Misato. "Misato, we're going to need all of the EVAs over here. We've got a much bigger problem than we thought."  
  
"We'll be lowered down directly into the EVAs' entry plugs. We don't have time to go back to SYNAPSE and do it the safe and easy way. We've already gotten word that SEELE's EVA-06 series is on its way here to claim Lillith!" Asuka states to the others while they floated above the area in a helicopter.  
  
The four pilots could see five planes coming their way, each one carrying an Evangelion.  
  
"Five Evangelions? Who's the fifth pilot?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Touji." Tenshi suddenly says.  
  
"What?!" Rei, Asuka, and Shinji say at the same time.  
  
"Ever since he was in enough shape to leave the hospital, he's been training in the rebuilt Unit 03. Since the 13th Angel was destroyed, it was completely safe. And Rei, Unit 00 was just recently rebuilt. I of course will be piloting Unit 04." Tenshi explains.  
  
"Geez, I leave for six months and you're still keeping secrets, Tenshi!" Shinji shouts.  
  
"My capability to keep secrets is one of my finer qualities, Ikari. Speaking of which, your father should be back at the HQ by now. He'll coordinate us in the defense against the 06 Series." Tenshi says.  
  
A short minute later, the five EVAs landed on the cemetery where Yui Ikari slept. Each of the pilots were brought down into their EVAs, taking station and loading the Entry plugs back into the necks of all of the Evangelions.  
  
"Unit 00 is online."  
  
"Unit 01 reporting, all systems functional."  
  
"Maßeinheit 02 betriebsbereit und fähig."  
  
"Touji reporting, Unit 03 is ready."  
  
"Unit 04 ready."  
  
The five EVAs took position, seeing in the distance nine Evangelions. These nine looked exactly the same, like a repainted version of the 05 Series they had faced over a year and a half ago. They had the same reptilian head, and the bird-like wings, but now they were colored a silver color. Each had some kind of lance in their hand. The five pilots prepared themselves.  
  
"Hey, Touji?" Shinji asks.  
  
"Yeah?" Touji replies, looking at Shinji through the vid-screen monitor.  
  
"Every Evangelion is supposed to have a soul residing within it. Usually, the soul is the loved one of the pilot. Who's the soul in yours?" Shinji inquired.  
  
Touji closed his eyes. "My sister." He said.  
  
"What?!" Shinji yelled.  
  
"When SEELE initially attacked NERV, the Evangelion trying to get to Lillith fired a beam cannon down into NERV HQ. The beam disintegrated half of the hospital district. My sister was one of the casualties." Touji explains.  
  
"I- I'm sorry..."  
  
"It's alright. Tenshi arranged for her soul to be placed within Unit 13. As long as I know my sister is all right wherever she is, I'm happy. Now, let's kick SEELE's ass."  
  
Shinji smiled.  
  
The nine Evangelions flew down twenty meters away from the SYNAPSE EVAs. Their wings retracted into their backs, and they grinned at them in a horrifying way.  
  
"LET'S GET IT ON!" Asuka shouted, immediately charging at the nearest 06 EVA.  
  
Unit 02's progressive knife slashed at the 06 EVA, but the 06 blocked with its lance. Unit 02 responded with punching the EVA in the face.  
  
"Gendou, any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated." Misato said, observing the battle from the main center of SYNAPSE. Gendou calmly walked over to where Maya sat, observing the readings coming from the 06 EVAs. He smiled and turned back to Misato.  
  
"These EVAs are not being powered internally. I do not think they have S2 engines." Gendou states.  
  
"Are you saying they're being piloted by people?" Misato asks.  
  
"No. They have no heat signatures from the entry plugs. I think they're using some kind of power transmission signal to power them so that our EVAs cannot disable them by just ripping out the engine." Gendou explains.  
  
"Of course! And we can use their own power signal to trace them back to SEELE and then alert the military! Shigeru!"  
  
"Already on it, General!" Shigeru replies, fast at work on accessing the transmission beam.  
  
"Mam, there's an extreme risk of a feedback into our own EVAs if we trace the beam!" Maya points out.  
  
"It's a risk we're going to have to take! Shigeru, do you have it?" Misato asks.  
  
"Yes, mam. Beginning trace... now!"  
  
Several seconds afterwards, an electrical explosion occurred at several consoles, but then the coordinates were relayed to Shigeru's console.  
  
"I have them, General!"  
  
"Relay them to UN militia and tell them to haul ass! Shinji! Tenshi! Asuka! Report!"  
  
And the reply Misato got was screams.  
  
Screens flashed on, showing camera images of the five pilots recoiling in pain. A few were curling up into balls like they were sick.  
  
"What's happening to them!?" Misato demanded.  
  
"I'm not sure! All vital signs show perfect health!" Makato shouted.  
  
"It's the feedback! It's penetrated into their very souls!" Gendou exclaimed.  
  
"SON OF A BITCH!"  
  
The group quickly saw Tenshi breathing deeply, in a cold sweat. He looked into the cameras and said, "Okay, what the hell was that?!"  
  
"Feedback from tracing SEELE's location. Will the others make as swift as recovery as you?" Misato asks.  
  
"I only managed to do it by summoning up every bit of my strength and willpower against it. I'm going to go help them!" Tenshi shouted.  
  
Tenshi activated the emergency hatch on Unit 04, and jumped out of it. He then jumped out into the sky, his flight capabilities taking effect. He let the wind guide him, taking him down over to Unit 01. Even through all the armor, he could hear the screams from Shinji inside. He opened a small compartment and pulled the lever inside of it. The entry plug quickly ejected out, sticking out of the back of Unit 01's neck. He opened the hatch on the plug to see Shinji staring straight ahead of him, veins over his head and his eyes wide open as he continually screamed.  
  
"Snap out of it, Ikari!" Tenshi shouted.  
  
He jumped inside as Shinji continued to yell, stopping only to breathe every few seconds. Tenshi slapped Shinji hard, but it did not quell his screams. He rolled his eyes and then grabbed Shinji's face.  
  
"Our minds are merging..."  
  
Shinji slowly opened his eyes. It was nighttime, wherever he was. He was sitting beneath a tree overlooking an ocean. Thoughts and memories flooded through him. Memories of rejection, angst, and fear. He curled up into a ball and began to cry lightly. Tenshi suddenly walked up to him. He looked down at Shinji.  
  
"Hey, Ikari? Life's a song, and you don't get to rehearse. Get on up and snap out of it." He stated.  
  
"I- I can't... Too much pain..." he sobbed.  
  
"What was the last year and a half to you? Did nothing I try to show you get through, truly? Our minds are as one, Ikari. You know my heart that's full of song, and I know your heart full of chagrin. We know each other, Shinji. We are the same." Tenshi stated.  
  
Suddenly, a piano and small orchestra began to play, the music coming from nowhere as Shinji and Tenshi began to sing to the song "No More," from Stephen Sondheim's music score from the musical "Into the Woods."  
  
"'No More questions, please. No more tests. Comes the day you say what for? Please... No more!'" Shinji sang.  
  
Tenshi glared at Shinji for a moment, then turned away.  
  
"'They disappoint, they disappear, they die but they don't.'" he murmured.  
  
"What?" Shinji asks, sitting up.  
  
Tenshi looked down at Shinji again, still glaring.  
  
"'They disappoint, in turn I fear, forgive though they won't.'" Tenshi sang.  
  
Shinji looked up at him in sorrowful eyes.  
  
"'No more riddles. No more jests. No more curses you can't undo left by fathers you never knew! No more quests! No more feelings. Time to shut the door. Just... No more.'" Shinji said, holding his legs in his arms as he looked out at the ocean.  
  
Tenshi walked over and sat down next to him, putting on a smile.  
  
"'Running away... Let's do it. Free from the ties that bind. No more despair, or burdens to bear, out there in the yonder!'" Tenshi sang.  
  
Tenshi looked over at Shinji, who still looked out at the ocean.  
  
"'Running away... Go to it. Where did you have in mind? Have to take care, unless there's a where, you'll only be wandering blind. Just more questions, different kinds. Where are we to go? Where are we ever to go?'"  
  
"'Running away... We'll do it. Why sit around resigned? The trouble with some, the farther you run, the more you feel undefined for what you have left undone. And more, what you've left behind!'"  
  
Tenshi then stood up, looking out at the ocean.  
  
"'We disappoint, we leave a mess, we die but we don't.'" Tenshi stated.  
  
Shinji then sang. "'We disappoint, in turn I guess, forget though we won't.'"  
  
And after that, they both sang the same thing, "'Like father, like son.'"  
  
There was a pause then as Shinji stood up. Images flashed through his mind of fighting the Angels and enemy Evangelions. "'No more giants waging war.'"  
  
He then turned to Tenshi and held onto his shirt in a pleading matter. "'Can't we just pursue our lives, with our fathers and their wives? 'Till that happy day arrives, how do you ignore... All the witches. All the curses. All the wolves, all the lies, the false hopes, the goodbyes, the reverses. All the wondering what even worse is still in store!?'"  
  
Tenshi gave no answer. He merely stared at him sympathetically.  
  
"'All the children... All the giants... No more...'"  
  
Shinji collapsed again, going into a fetal position. Tenshi's face turned into a glare, and he kneeled down to Shinji.  
  
"Shinji, you have to snap out of this. You're stronger than this!" he exclaimed.  
  
"No I'm not... I hear the voice of SEELE over and over in my mind... It orders me to obey..."  
  
"Then resist it!" Tenshi shouts.  
  
"I can't! I don't know how!" Shinji yells back.  
  
Tenshi bites his lip, thinking for a moment. He then gets it.  
  
"Shinji, you just have to say, 'No I won't' one more time than they can say, 'Yes, you will.'"  
  
Shinji blinks for a moment, he closes his eyes...  
  
Tenshi falls back, releasing his grip on Shinji's face. He looked up at the monitors, seeing that Asuka and Touji were gritting their teeth and breaking out of the feedback. However, Rei was still screaming. Immediately, Tenshi jumped up and Shinji placed the entry plug back into Unit 01 as Tenshi cleared it. He immediately used all his flight strength to get himself over to Unit 00, and pulled open the compartment over the entry plug. He pulled on the lever inside, ejecting the entry plug and he opened the hatch to see Rei screaming.  
  
Not being in the mood to sing again, Tenshi merely put his hand over her mouth and she stopped screaming, looking at him in sadness and pain. He let go of her mouth, which was shivering in fear.  
  
"Ayanami, you have to snap out of this!" Tenshi shouts.  
  
"I- I can't! I'm just a doll, Tenshi! I know I've been saying otherwise, but I'm just a doll to be used and discarded!" Rei exclaimed.  
  
"No, you're not! You are a girl that is loved and cherished by everyone you know! You have a soul!" Tenshi replies.  
  
"SOUL!? How can I have a soul?! I'm piloting Unit 00! My own soul went out of my body for me to pilot it! I CAN'T BE PILOTING IT IF I HAVE A SOUL!" Ayanami yelled at him.  
  
"Yes you can! Something else is powering it! Love!" Tenshi says, his own face filled with fear of losing Rei.  
  
"Love?! I don't know love! No one loves me truly and purely!"  
  
"Yes, someone does!"  
  
"Oh yeah, who?!"  
  
"ME!"  
  
Rei looked at Tenshi, who was beginning to cry. He fell into her lap, sobbing.  
  
"I love you, Rei! I've loved you since I first saw you, even as an Angel! You're beautiful, Ayanami! You're the one thing I truly love! I want to be with you, Rei! I LOVE YOU!"  
  
Rei blinked, and then hugged him. Tenshi slowly stopped crying, and he looked at Rei. The two's heads came closer, and their lips met in a passionate, loving kiss. The romantic moment, however, was broken by the irritating voice of one hotheaded red-haired girl.  
  
"WOOO! Wonder Girl's getting' it on with the Angel!" Asuka laughed.  
  
Tenshi's eyes narrowed at Asuka. "I hate my life." He sighed.  
  
"This is Misato to EVA pilots! Do you read me?" Misato's voice said, a video link suddenly being established.  
  
"We read you, Misato. What's up?" Shinji asks.  
  
"We have a new problem. The tracking signal we used to locate SEELE disrupted the power flow to the enemy EVAs. However, it seems that as a backup precaution, SEELE did in fact install S2 Engines into the 06 series. They're powering up now." Misato states.  
  
"Well, we'll just smash 'em apart before they can charge!" Asuka says.  
  
"Not possible. We've scanned the 06s; their armoring is made of a polymer unlike anything we've encountered. None of your weapons will be able to penetrate it." Gendou says.  
  
"Then might I suggest we do something different?" Tenshi asks.  
  
"Like what?" Touji inquires.  
  
"Like draining the battery." Tenshi suggests.  
  
"Are you sure you can handle this much power?" Shinji asks.  
  
"For the ninth time, NO! However, none of you have the kind of divine necessities in order to take in this much raw power without killing yourselves. With luck, I can take in the power and then give to Unit 04 to consume. Are we ready?" Tenshi asks.  
  
"Ready as we'll ever be. Start it up, Tenshi." Misato commands.  
  
"Okay, everyone, BEGIN!" Tenshi shouts.  
  
The five Evangelion Units held each other's hands, Unit 04 being in the center. Inside each entry plug, the pilot was focusing on using their own minds to burrow deep inside for the inner power of each EVA, the souls within them, if you will. They all gritted their teeth as they search the very fiber of their being, and finally, in a small, dark corner of the EVAs' cores, they found what they were looking for.  
  
Out of Unit 00's head came a ghostly figure looking like Rei Ayanami.  
  
Out of Unit 01's head came a ghostly figure looking like Yui Ikari.  
  
Out of Unit 02's head came a ghostly figure looking like Mrs. Langley.  
  
Out of Unit 03's head came a ghostly figure looking like Touji's sister.  
  
And out of Unit 04's head came a ghostly figure looking like Tenshi.  
  
The five 'souls' wrapped themselves all around the EVA 06 series. The lights and power in the EVAs slowed to a stop, killing them by draining the S2 engines of power completely. The souls slowly retracted back into the EVAs, but they were not through there. The power they possessed was too much for them to handle, and so, the power was all transferred into the pilot of Unit 04: Tenshi.  
  
Tenshi screamed for a moment as a white light enveloped his body. Suddenly, the light disappeared, and his eyes began glowing white. He merely stared up at the roof of his EVA.  
  
"Tenshi?! Tenshi, can you hear me?!" Rei shouted.  
  
"It's no use, Ayanami. He's doing what needs to be done now." Gendou states.  
  
"What do you mean?" Shinji asks.  
  
"All of you have had some form of mental vision in a dark realm where you confronted your demons." Gendou says.  
  
"So?" Asuka asks.  
  
"Has Tenshi ever done that before?"  
  
Tenshi opened his eyes. He looked around himself, seeing only blackness outside of the light that shined down over him. He was sitting in a metal folding chair, so he stood up. For what seemed like an infinite amount of time, nothing happened. He then spoke, saying the words that millions have wondered by seeing this dark and black place.  
  
"Why the hell is it so dark in here?"  
  
There was no reply to his joke question. He then decided he was sick of waiting.  
  
"Where are you?! Show yourselves! I know you're here!"  
  
"Of course you have. We have always been here."  
  
Another light shined down, showing Asuka in her plug suit.  
  
"The others are a disease. Why do you help them?" she asks.  
  
"Because they are my friends. I believe in them."  
  
"Do you believe in yourself?"  
  
Tenshi gave no answer.  
  
"Do you believe in yourself?"  
  
"I refuse to answer."  
  
"You're afraid to answer."  
  
Another light shined down, now showing Shinji as the light with Asuka disappeared.  
  
"What does it matter if I am?"  
  
"Because you need to believe in yourself." The apparition of Shinji said.  
  
"I do."  
  
"Then why did you evade the question?"  
  
"Because no one truly believes in themselves."  
  
The light with Shinji disappeared, being replaced by another light that had Rei in it.  
  
"Shinji does." She states.  
  
"How do you know?"  
  
The light disappeared, leaving Tenshi alone again. It gave no answer.  
  
"Who are you? What do you want?"  
  
Tenshi was given no answer.  
  
"Why are you here? Where are you going?"  
  
Still no answer.  
  
"How DARE you lecture me about believing in myself when you don't even know the answers to MY questions?! You don't know who you are, you don't know what you want, you don't know why you're here, and you don't know where you're going!" Tenshi shouted out.  
  
Still nothing came.  
  
"ANSWER ME!" he exclaimed.  
  
And he was answered.  
  
One light shined down, right in front of Tenshi. The figure standing before him wore a white robe, and her hair was at shoulder length and a light brown color. Her eyes were sweet and innocent. Tenshi's pupils dilated as he recognized her from his own past as a human.  
  
"Amelia?!" he asked.  
  
"Yes, my Angel." She said. "You must let go of the others. Join me, John."  
  
Amelia held out her hand to Tenshi. He smiled and put his own hand out, taking hers. Amelia was going to lead Tenshi into her light, when suddenly Tenshi's smile turned into a glare and he pulled her hard into his light, twisting her around and he snapped his arm very fast, breaking Amelia's arm. She yelped in pain as Tenshi held her arms back.  
  
"Did you really think I could be bought so easily?!" he demanded.  
  
Amelia glared back at him.  
  
"I lost any love I had for you when you made the wrong choice in Purgatory!" he shouts, throwing her back into her own circle.  
  
"I love Ayanami now. And not you or anyone else can change that. And so I say, LET THERE BE LIGHT!"  
  
And the darkness all around him shattered like glass, leaving him sitting down in the entry plug of Unit 04. He took in a deep breath as he saw the power draining from himself into Unit 04.  
  
"Tenshi?! Tenshi, are you already?!" Rei asked.  
  
"I'm fine, Ayanami. I'm fine."  
  
"All the SEELE members have been tried and sentenced to life imprisonment." Misato says, sitting down at the especially large table at the restaurant where Tenshi worked.  
  
"Alls well that ends well, Misato." Kaji says, embracing her briefly.  
  
"Frankly, I don't know why you people spend so much time in this place. The critics say the food isn't that good." Ritsuko states.  
  
"Food can be supplemented by entertainment, Dr." Gendou rebuts.  
  
"Where are Tenshi and Rei, anyway?" Maya asks.  
  
"Probably giving each other some good ol' sex before they do their song together." Asuka suggests.  
  
"Is that all you ever think about? Sex?" Makato asks.  
  
"Nah, I think about other things. Shinji, nakedness, hot sweaty bodies..." Asuka grins.  
  
"You're a very sick girl, Asuka." Touji says.  
  
"Not anymore sick than you, you improper little-" Hikari starts to say.  
  
"Hey, hey, we're not here to fight. We're here to enjoy ourselves." Kensuke states.  
  
"Yeah, and I enjoy pointing out how rude and insensitive my boyfriend is. And that's why I love him." Hikari replies.  
  
"Isn't the show going to start soon?" Shigeru asks.  
  
"And where's our waiter?" Shinji inquires.  
  
Suddenly, the lights dimmed, and a spotlight shined down on Rei and Tenshi. Tenshi wore an elegant tuxedo whereas Rei wore a glittering red dress.  
  
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we'd like to dedicate this next song to the saviors of the world and for not letting us all get put into a cheap-ass version of the Borg collective, AKA Third Impact, those people down there!" Tenshi shouted.  
  
Five lights shine down from the ceiling and encompass the group of people, who all stand up and bow.  
  
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, let's all enjoy the singing talents of my lovely associate Rei Ayanami!" Tenshi says into the microphone, and he moves away.  
  
Rei moves up to the microphone. The music begins playing to the theme of Evangelion, "Cruel Angel's Thesis."  
  
"'Like an Angel with no sense of mercy... Rise, young boy, to the heavens, like a legend!'" she sings.  
  
All of a sudden, when they stay on one note, Tenshi shouts, "ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!"  
  
The music changes entirely, changing into Smash Mouth's "I'm a believer!"  
  
"'I thought love was only true in fairy tales, meant for someone else, but not for me! Love was out to get me. That's the way it seems. Disappointment haunted all my dreams...'" he sang.  
  
"'And then I saw her face! Now I'm a believer! And not a trace... Of doubt in my mind! I'm in love! I'm a believer, I couldn't leave her if I tried!'"  
  
Then, Rei began to sing. "'I thought love was more or less a given thing. But the more I gave, the less I got, oh yeah. What's the use of trying? All I get is pain. When I wanted sunshine I got rain...'"  
  
"'And then I saw her face!'" Tenshi shouted.  
  
"'Now I'm a believer! And not a trace... Of doubt in my mind! I'm in love! I'm a believer, I couldn't leave him/her if I tried!'" they sang together.  
  
After that, there was a brief musical solo.  
  
"'What's the use of trying? All I get is pain. When I wanted sunshine I got rain...'" Tenshi sang.  
  
"'And then I saw her face! Now I'm a believer! And not a trace... Of doubt it in my mind! I'm in love! I'm a believer, I couldn't leave her if I tried!'"  
  
There was another solo for a moment.  
  
"'Then I saw her fa-ace! Now I'm a believer! Not a trace... Of doubt in my mind! Now I'm a believer! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Ye-ah! I'm a believer! I'm a believer! I'M A BELIEVER, I couldn't leave her if I triiiiieeed.'"  
  
And with that, the song ended, and the entire restaurant exploded into applause and cheers. Tenshi and Rei embraced and kissed happily.  
  
The cities were rebuilt, and the peace restored. And giant, mechanical, artificially evolved human beings known as Evangelions were never needed again. The souls within them went to the Heaven that greeted them with open arms. And now, Tenshi has prepared his own ending phrase for this story you have witnessed.  
  
"There must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forth in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine." Tenshi says.  
  
THE-  
  
"Hey, wait a second!" Shinji exclaimed. "You stole that from Doctor Who!"  
  
"No I didn't!" Tenshi shouts.  
  
"Yes, you did! William Hartnell said it!" Shinji shouted.  
  
And they all lived happily ever after.  
  
"AHEM." Asuka said.  
  
Well, sort of...  
  
"That's better." Asuka smiled.  
  
THE END. 


End file.
